Ambition

Cat. No. 1056

Ambition

State/Variant:
Only state
Date:
1989
Themes
Spirals
Techniques
Drypoint
Support:
Smooth, wove paper
Dimensions:
plate: 4 15/16 x 6 7/8" (12.6 x 17.5 cm); sheet: 19 1/2 × 14 1/16" (49.5 × 35.7 cm)
Signature:
Not signed
Publisher
unpublished
Printer
Harlan & Weaver
Edition:
4 known impressions of the only state
Edition Information:
Not issued as a published edition.
Impression:
Not numbered
Background:
In the late 1980s, when publisher Peter Blum began the portfolio project "Anatomy" with Bourgeois, he sought the assistance of printer Judith Solodkin, of SOLO Impression, a longtime friend of the artist. Solodkin suggested Harlan & Weaver as intaglio printers and she served as supervisor for this project and a number of individual prints at that time, including "Meteorology," "Shooting Stars," "Tops," Untitled, and "To Hide," all seen below in Related Works in the Catalogue.
Former Cat. No.:
W & S 92
Description:
Drypoint
Artist’s Remarks:
"Spirals are a plea. Today I am No. 1 personality... tomorrow, I am No. 2. They are a plea to be accepted with many different moods... a plea for love. But if you don't integrate these attitudes, you are in danger of fragmenting and dying... if you repress them, you kill part of yourself. There can not be jealousy between your attitudes... there can be no competition. But don't worry... all these attitudes can relate to each other... they will organize and form a pattern, a little society. If you let this happen and everyone has a home and a use... it makes a difference. If you treat your unconscious like a friend, it will work for you... it will become a friend. If you treat it like a dog... it will become like a dog."

"The spirals are a form of survival. You have to build up a miserable little strategy to defeat despair. It is a study of the self. These emotions are in all of us. How are you going to make it today?... What saves you is the knowledge that people love you. It is an appeal to reason all the time... the strategy you evolve to be tolerated, accepted, loved." (Quotes cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 163)
MoMA Accession Number:
539.1993
This Work in Other Collections:
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2 impressions)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY

Ambition

1989

States
Ambition

Related Works in the Catalogue

Untitled, no. 1 of 12, from the series, Spirals
Untitled, no. 3 of 12, from the series, Spirals
To Hide
Ambition Shadowless
Tops
Untitled, no. 9 of 12, from the series, Spirals
Untitled
Meteorology
Art Is a Guaranty of Sanity, no. 9 of 9, from the series, What Is the Shape of This Problem?
Anatomy
Spiraling Arrows
Shooting Stars

Related Works in Other Mediums

Spiraling Arrows
Untitled
I Need My Memories, They Are My Documents!
Untitled