Cat. No. 700/VIII
Storm at Saint Honoré
- State/Variant:
- State VIII of VIII
- Date:
- 1994
- Themes
- Nature
- Techniques
- Drypoint, Engraving
- Support:
- Smooth, wove Arches paper
- Dimensions:
- plate: 20 7/8 × 32 3/4" (53 × 83.2 cm); sheet: 24 9/16 x 35 13/16" (62.4 x 91 cm)
- Signature:
- "Louise Bourgeois 1994" lower right margin, pencil.
- Publisher
- Éditions de la Tempête
- Printer
- Harlan & Weaver
- Edition:
- Edition: 100; plus 25 A.P., 10 H.C., 6 P.P.
- Edition Information:
- There is 1 known variant impression of state VIII, outside the edition.
- Impression:
- "A.P. 25/25" lower left margin, pencil, unknown hand.
- Background:
- The publisher Éditions de la Tempête, Paris, contacted Bourgeois in 1992 to request her participation in a portfolio project to benefit Médecins du Monde, a French humanitarian organization that sends doctors to areas where medical help is needed. Bourgeois's print was included in "Les Artistes pour Médecins du Monde," the first portfolio published by Éditions de la Tempête, containing works by twenty-five artists including Pierre Alechinsky, Balthus, Roy Lichtenstein, Matta, Robert Rauschenberg, and Antoni Tàpies. The artists were given no restrictions regarding subject, medium, or size.
- Former Cat. No.:
- W & S 146
- Description:
- Engraving and drypoint
- State Changes and Additions:
- Changes from state VII, by burnishing: swirling form at bottom center somewhat lightened.
- Benefit Work:
- For Médicins du Monde (Doctors of the World), Paris
- Artist’s Remarks:
- "The horizon divides the land and the sky, which are equally black and tormented." Pointing to the treelike shape at the center, Bourgeois said, "There is a little self-portrait here... it looks like a little geyser... it is the center and it holds its own in that storm.
"The idea of the geyser is of the sources that come out of the ground. They are hot, sometimes very hot... they are useful, beneficial as in the spas. There is a certain mystery to the hot waters that gurgle out... you do not know where they come from.... With my mother's emphysema, I took her from spa to spa. They told me it was a vacation, but it really was a way of pushing back death." Bourgeois proceeded to write the names of spas in the margin of the print. "This print was chosen by the Médecins du Monde as a benefit. They chose it without knowing what it meant to me." (Quotes cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. “The Prints of Louise Bourgeois.” New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 226.) - MoMA Credit Line:
- Gift of the artist
- MoMA Accession Number:
- 10.2002
- This Work in Other Collections:
- Albertina, Vienna
Cleveland Museum of Art, OH
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
State VIII of VIII
1994
Storm at Saint Honoré
1993-1994
Source
1952
Untitled
1952
Untitled
1952
Medium: Ink on paper
Dimensions: sheet: 14 1/2 × 22" (36.8 × 55.9 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Related Works in the Catalogue
Related Works in Other Mediums
The Sweet Smell of Indigo
1968
The Sweet Smell of Indigo
1968
Medium: Watercolor, charcoal, and gouache on paper
Dimensions: sheet: 19 1/4 x 25" (48.9 x 63.5 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Resin Eight
1965
Resin Eight
1965
Medium: Resin over hemp
Dimensions: overall: 7 x 2 x 2 1/2" (17.8 x 5.1 x 6.4 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Untitled
1951
Untitled
1951
Medium: Ink on graph paper
Dimensions: sheet: 11 x 8 1/2" (27.9 x 21.6 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Soft Landscape I
1967
Soft Landscape I
1967
Medium: Pigmented resin
Dimensions: overall: 4 × 12 × 11" (10.2 × 30.5 × 27.9 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Untitled
1996
Untitled
1996
Medium: Ink and pencil on paper
Dimensions: sheet: 9 × 11 1/2" (22.9 × 29.2 cm)
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY