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Additions in blue ink: mother’s hair thickened, mother’s hands, feet, and breasts further delineated, baby’s eyelashes and ear further delineated, all anticipating state II. Additions in black ink: mother’s hair thickened, anticipating state II.
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.
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:
602.1996
This Work in Other Collections:
Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland Museu da Gravura Cidade de Curitiba, Brazil Tate Modern, London
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