LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Words

Description:

Lead relief plate, with stamping and hammering

Dimensions:

plate: 6 1/2 x 13 1/4" (16.5 x 33.7 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Artist’s Remarks:

"When this was done, it was a real exorcism... I didn't hold a grudge. There had been a sharp disappointment." Bourgeois continued, "I think it was that I was not included in a show... I was refused."
Showing some lead sheets like those she used for the matrices of these prints, she remarked, "I love this material... lead... I cut out the shape. I would call the metal letters branding... I used a mallet to bang them. I used it because I wanted to emphasize it. There is branding, rubbing, and stencil here. This is experimental." (Quote cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 144.)

"The impetus and the violence came from the fact that I was put in a situation of rivalry with a lot of my colleagues. [...] 'Whitney Murders' meant I resented so much the whole thing, because I was not in. You see? That I was ready to murder everybody, right?" (Quote cited in Bourgeois, Louise and Lawrence Rinder. "Louise Bourgeois Drawings and Observations." Berkeley: University Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive University of California, Berkeley; Boston: Bulfinch Press, 1995, pp. 316-317.)

Former Cat. No.:

W&S 72.4

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

538.1994

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY