LOUISE BOURGEOIS: COMPLETE BOOKS & PRINTS

Alternate Title:

Where People Face Each Other in Judgement

Descriptive Title:

Girl and Parents

Themes:

Figures, Motherhood & Family, Objects

Techniques:

Drypoint

Description:

Drypoint

Support:

Smooth, wove paper

Dimensions:

plate: 13 7/8 x 16 15/16" (35.3 x 43 cm); sheet: 17 13/16 x 20 13/16" (45.3 x 52.8 cm)

Signature:

Not signed

Publisher:

unpublished

Printer:

Harlan & Weaver, New York

Edition:

1 known impression of version 2, state IV

Impression:

Not numbered

Edition Information:

Not issued as a published edition at any state.

The 3 impressions of varying states labeled "HC", in the artist's hand, are not conventional H.C. impressions, which would be included in an edition.

State Changes and Additions:

Changes from version 1: composition transferred to slightly larger plate, in drypoint; heads of parents reconfigured, collar and tie added to man, shoes added to child, table top reconfigured, table and chair legs lengthened.
Changes from version 2, state III, by burnishing: child’s neck removed.
Changes from version 2, state III, in drypoint: child’s neck reconfigured, dishes and woman’s right shoulder further delineated.

Background:

In the inscription on the verso of the second study illustrated in the Evolving Composition Diagram below, Bourgeois refers to Jean-Louis, one of her three sons.

Artist’s Remarks:

Inscription on the verso of the first study illustrated in the Evolving Composition Diagram below: "where people face each other in judgment, dinner table, impossible / to hide."

Inscription on the verso of the second study illustrated in the Evolving Composition Diagram below: "unique for Pat Slatt / print / the child is Jean Louis / the father is looking at Jean L Louis. / January 28 1998. NY / Rachel Cowan-"

MoMA Credit Line:

Gift of the artist

MoMA Accession Number:

790.2008

© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY