Cat. No. 682

Horizontal Landscape: Dune

State/Variant:: Only state
Date:: 1948

Themes: Abstraction, Nature
Techniques: Engraving
Support:: Smooth, wove paper
Dimensions:: plate: 4 15/16 x 6 3/4" (12.6 x 17.2cm); sheet: 5 1/2 × 8 13/16" (14 × 22.4 cm)
Signature:: "Louise Bourgeois." upper left margin [upside down], pencil; "1948" upper right margin [upside down], pencil.
Publisher: unpublished
Printer: The artist at Atelier 17
Edition:: 1 known impression of the only state
Edition Information:: Not issued as a published edition at any state.
Impression:: Not numbered
Curatorial Remarks:: This impression is reproduced in the orientation designated by the artist when it was published in Wye and Smith, "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois," 1994. This orientation is the opposite of that indicated by the inscriptions.

In the second half of the 1940s, Bourgeois spent time at Atelier 17, the print workshop of Stanley William Hayter. The workshop had transferred operations from Paris to New York during the war years. It is not known precisely which prints she made at the workshop since she also worked at home on a small press. The designation of “the artist at Atelier 17” as printer means that the impression was likely made at the workshop. The designation is based on dates, inscriptions, techniques favored at Atelier 17, and/or stylistic similarities to images in the illustrated book “He Disappeared into Complete Silence,” which the artist repeatedly cited as having been made at Atelier 17. It is also possible that Bourgeois worked on certain plates both at home and at the workshop, or pulled impressions at both places.
Former Cat. No.:: W & S 61
Description:: Engraving
Inscription:: Verso: "NFS" upper right sheet, pencil, artist's hand; "horizontale / landscape: dune / 5 x 7 / non flottant / non pendu / 15" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
Artist’s Remarks:: Bourgeois remembered that her friends Gertrude and Balcomb Greene had a place in Montuak where she saw dunes. She worked on this plate at the beach.

"The weeds that grow on the beach are so tough that no animals can eat them... they are indestructible. This is a world of eat or be eaten and the sea grasses survive." She pointed out seeds floating in the air. "There is an egg... they germinate. This is a study of how you are born... how grateful you are to be born. It is a song of gratitude." (Quotes cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 131.)
MoMA Credit Line:: Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:: 140.1990