LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Alternate Title:

Robert

Descriptive Title:

Sleeping Man

Themes:

Architecture, Figures, Objects

Techniques:

Drypoint

Description:

Drypoint, with pencil additions

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 8 3/8 x 6 1/4" (21.3 x 15.9 cm); sheet: 26 x 18 1/16" (66 x 45.8 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Harlan & Weaver, New York

Edition:

2 known impressions of state II

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Proof before the editioning of state III.

State Changes and Additions:

Changes from state I, in drypoint: button added to coat; left cuff further delineated; left armrest further delineated; opening of coat articulated on right.
Additions in pencil: opening of coat further delineated on chest, horizontal line added to base of left armrest, both anticipating state III.

Background:

Bourgeois was often inspired by the subjects of early drawings when creating works at much later dates. This 1994 portfolio is an example of a project based primarily on drawings from the 1940s and referring to her life in New York at that time. The exceptions are as follows: plate 1, based on a drawing from 1986 that references childbirth; plates 4 and 9, based on drawings from the 1940s but depicting memories of her childhood years in France; plate 11, most probably based on a drawing from the 1940s of a European hotel desk.

Bourgeois was married to American art historian, Robert Goldwater.

Curatorial Remarks:

Of the 14 plates in "Autobiographical Series," Bourgeois titled plates 6 and 12. The untitled plates have been assigned descriptive titles for cataloguing purposes.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

592.1996

This Work in Other Collections:

Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Québec
Museu da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba, Brazil
Tate Modern, London

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY