LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Themes:

Abstraction, Faces & Portraits

Techniques:

Lithography

Description:

Lithograph, with clear varnish and white paint additions

Support:

Smooth, wove Arches paper

Dimensions:

composition: 23 1/4 x 17 1/16" (59 x 43.4 cm); sheet: 30 1/16 x 22 7/16" (76.3 x 57 cm)

Signature:

"LB" lower right margin, pencil.

Publisher:

Exit Art, New York

Printer:

SOLO Impression, New York

Edition:

50 on paper; plus 8 A.P., 4 P.P., 4 T.P., 1 B.A.T., and an edition of 6 on fabric (including 1 on a slip)

Impression:

"AP 3" lower left margin, pencil, unknown hand.

Edition Information:

There are 5 known variant impressions of version 2, outside the two editions.

State Changes and Additions:

Changes from version 1: composition executed in lithography; image enlarged.

Benefit Work:

For Exit Art, New York

Background:

Exit Art, 1982-2012, was an alternative exhibition space known for bringing exposure to emerging artists dealing with sociopolitically challenging work. When Exit Art approached Bourgeois for a contribution to one of their annual Benefit Print Portfolios, Bourgeois chose to create an enlarged lithograph version of the "The Guilty Girl" drypoint composition. According to Bourgeois's assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, Bourgeois may have made the second version because lithography could have been more conducive to printing the multiple colors with which Bourgeois experimented in variants of the drypoint version. Bourgeois may have enlarged the image, as well, due to Exit Art's 30 x 22" standard sheet size for the portfolio.

The portfolio is titled "twoandthreezeros" and it includes 8 prints in an edition of 50 with artists Patty Chang, Peter Hildebrand, Sol LeWitt, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Yigal Ozeri, Shahzia Sikander, and Bourgeois, plus a cover printed by Exit Art co-founder, Papo Colo.

Artist’s Remarks:

"The triangular figure rests on a single point and can easily fall down. Her guilt has nothing to do with religion. There is guilt in not living up to one's highest potential. There is guilt from not being able to make yourself understood. There is guilt in not being a good mother. And there is guilt in not being able to make yourself loved." Bourgeois interviewed by Simona Vendrame. "Tema Celeste" 85 (2001): 49.

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

28.2002

This Work in Other Collections:

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY