Insomnia, frontispiece, from the illustrated book, Louise Bourgeois: The Insomnia Drawings

Cat. No. 125.2 (book)

Insomnia, frontispiece, from the illustrated book, Louise Bourgeois: The Insomnia Drawings

State/Variant:
Version 2 of 2, only state
Date:
2000
Themes
Body Parts, Faces & Portaits, Objects
Techniques
Drypoint
Support:
Smooth, wove paper
Dimensions:
plate: 9 3/8 x 7" (23.8 x 17.8 cm); page: 12 3/8 x 9 3/16" (31.4 x 23.4 cm)
Signature:
"LB 2000" lower right margin, pencil.
Publisher
Daros Collection
Printer
Harlan & Weaver
Edition:
100; plus 20 A.P., 1 P.P., bound as frontispiece; an unbound edition on paper of 7, plus 4 P.P., 1 H.C., and an edition of 5 on fabric
Edition Information:
There are 4 impressions of version 2, only state, outside the editions; 3 are variants, one (978.2008) is not.
Impression:
"II/XX" lower left margin, pencil, unknown hand.
Background:
In 1994-95, Bourgeois, who was plagued by insomnia, created a series of 220 works on paper during sleepness nights. She kept them together as a group, calling them, "The Insomnia Drawings." The dealer and publisher Peter Blum mounted the first exhibition of this series during the Basel Art Fair in June 1995. Later, the Daros Collection of Zurich, Switzerland, purchased the series and decided to reproduce them in a two-volume book called, "Louise Bourgeois: The Insomnia Drawings," which was published in 2000. The first volume contains facsimiles of both the recto and verso of the 220 drawings. The second volume is comprised of a foreward by Stephan Schmidheiny, texts by Marie-Laure Bernadac and Elisabeth Bronfen, a chronology, and a checklist, transcriptions, and notes.This two-volume work was published by Daros, Zurich, in collaboration with Peter Blum Edition, New York, and Scalo, Zurich, Berlin, New York.
For a special limited edition of this two-volume work, a drypoint entitled "Insomnia" was selected to serve as a bound-in frontispiece in the first volume. Since the selected drypoint was too large for this purpose, it was reworked in a second version, at a reduced size.
Curatorial Remarks:
Opposite the title page, the medium for this composition is given as "etching." This is a mistake. The medium is drypoint.
Description:
Drypoint, with selective wiping
State Changes and Additions:
Changes from version 1: composition re-drawn on a smaller plate, with slight variations overall.
Benefit Work:
For Daros Collection, Zürich
MoMA Credit Line:
Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:
32.2002
This Work in Other Collections:
Tate Modern, London
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY

Insomnia

2000

Source

2000

Insomnia
First Version
Insomnia
Insomnia
Insomnia
Second Version
Insomnia, frontispiece, from the illustrated book, Louise Bourgeois: The Insomnia Drawings
Insomnia, frontispiece from the illustrated book, Louise Bourgeois: The Insomnia Drawings
Insomnia, frontispiece, from the illustrated book, Louise Bourgeois: The Insomnia Drawings
Insomnia, frontispiece, from the illustrated book, Louise Bourgeois: The Insomnia Drawings
Insomnia, frontispiece, from the illustrated book, Louise Bourgeois: The Insomnia Drawings
Insomnia
Insomnia

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Tête à l'envers

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