Hinged Landscape at a Distance

Cat. No. 1015.1/II

Hinged Landscape at a Distance

State/Variant:
Version 1 of 2, state II of II
Date:
1999
Themes
Architecture
Techniques
Engraving, Etching
Support:
Smooth, wove Somerset paper
Dimensions:
plate: 11 7/8 x 8 15/16" (30.2 x 22.7 cm); sheet: 16 x 11" (40.7 x 28 cm)
Signature:
Not signed
Publisher
unpublished
Printer
Wingate Studio
Edition:
1 known impression of version 1, state II
Edition Information:
Proof before the editioning of version 2.
Impression:
Not numbered
Background:
This composition was initially developed around 1989 in conjunction with Benjamin Shiff, director of Osiris, as a preliminary trial for the book project "the puritan" (see below in Related Works in the Catalogue) although it did not ultimately appear in that book. Bourgeois and Shiff returned to the composition in 2003, creating a second version to issue in an edition of 3, and to include in the book, “One’s Sleep".
Descriptive Title:
Houses with Roads
Description:
Etching and engraving, with blue carbon and pencil additions
State Changes and Additions:
Changes from version 1, state I, in engraving: two small houses added in lower center comp.; roads further delineated.
Artist’s Remarks:
"There is a hinging of the landscape here that makes it both vertical and horizontal. There can be a change of mood... when it is up, it is very alert... when it is down it can be restful.

"But I would call it today the eternal road that goes nowhere... it is very empty... it is melancholy. It is like the long road from Paris to the south. We were on that road all the time to go south for my mother's health. It reminds me of Camus, who died on that road... he was young.

"The house is a museum, lycée, jail, or hospital. It is an institution, because that is the style in France... an architecture of a certain kind. This is the public life versus the private life. In other things you are a private person, here you become a citizen... you have to wait your turn... there are many people in front of you." (Quotes cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. "The Prints of Louise Bourgeois." New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 154.)
MoMA Credit Line:
Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:
841.2008
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY

In the Distance

c. 1989-2003

Source

1946

Untitled
First Version
Hinged Landscape at a Distance
Hinged Landscape at a Distance
Second Version
In the Distance
In the Distance, plate 10 of 18, from the illustrated book, One's Sleep (1)
In the Distance, plate 10 of 18, from the illustrated book, One's Sleep (3)

Illustrated Book

2003

One's Sleep

Related Works in the Catalogue

Ma Maison
the puritan
Fences Are Obsolete
Strange Fellows
Hinged Landscape—Short Distance
L'Allée Montante

Related Works in Other Mediums

Prison & Ladder
Untitled
House
System of Exits
Topiary