The Guilty Girl Is Fragile

Cat. No. 428.1/I, variant 1

The Guilty Girl Is Fragile

State/Variant:
Version 1 of 2, state I of III, variant
Date:
2000
Themes
Abstraction, Faces & Portaits
Techniques
Drypoint
Support:
Smooth, wove paper
Dimensions:
plate: 10 7/8 x 7 7/8" (27.6 x 20 cm); sheet: 15 3/8 x 11 1/8" (39 x 28.3 cm)
Signature:
Not signed
Publisher
unpublished
Printer
Harlan & Weaver
Edition:
4 known variant impressions of version 1 of 2, state I
Edition Information:
Proof before the editioning of version 2.
Impression:
Not numbered
Background:
The edition of version 2, in lithography on paper, was published as a benefit for Exit Art, New York.

Exit Art, 1982-2012, was an alternative exhibition space known for bringing exposure to emerging artists dealing with sociopolitically challenging work. When Exit Art approached Bourgeois for a contribution to one of their annual Benefit Print Portfolios, Bourgeois chose to create an enlarged lithograph version of the "The Guilty Girl" drypoint composition. According to Bourgeois's assistant, Jerry Gorovoy, Bourgeois may have made the second version because lithography could have been more conducive to printing the multiple colors with which Bourgeois experimented in variants of the drypoint version. Bourgeois may have enlarged the image, as well, due to Exit Art's 30 x 22" standard sheet size for the portfolio.

The portfolio is titled "twoandthreezeros" and it includes 8 prints in an edition of 50 with artists Patty Chang, Peter Hildebrand, Sol LeWitt, Kerry James Marshall, Julie Mehretu, Yigal Ozeri, Shahzia Sikander, and Bourgeois, plus a cover printed by Exit Art co-founder, Papo Colo.
Description:
Drypoint, with selective wiping, and pencil additions
Inscription:
Verso: [sketch of a bull's head with a figure holding its horns] lower center sheet, pencil, artist's hand; "Francis Bacon / Goya. Picasso. Jean Fremon / Torreador. bull fighting. / la pampa" lower middle sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
State Changes and Additions:
Additions in pencil: horizontal line at base of triangle, anticipating state II; lower right of triangle reinforced.
Artist’s Remarks:
"The triangular figure rests on a single point and can easily fall down. Her guilt has nothing to do with religion. There is guilt in not living up to one's highest potential. There is guilt from not being able to make yourself understood. There is guilt in not being a good mother. And there is guilt in not being able to make yourself loved." Bourgeois interviewed by Simona Vendrame. "Tema Celeste" 85 (2001): 49.
MoMA Credit Line:
Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:
962.2008
This Work in Other Collections:
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY

The Guilty Girl Is Fragile

2000

Source

2000

The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
First Version
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
Second Version
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile

Related Works in the Catalogue

The Cross-Eyed Woman V
The Fragile
Untitled, plate 4 of 6, from the portfolio, Together

Related Works in Other Mediums

The Vocabulary of Guilt
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile
The Guilty Girl Is Fragile (detail)