In the Distance

Cat. No. 1015.2

In the Distance

State/Variant:
Version 2 of 2, only state
Date:
1989-2003
Themes
Architecture
Techniques
Etching
Support:
Arches paper, mounted on Dieu Donné paper
Dimensions:
plate (trimmed; approx.): 35 3/4 × 8 3/16" (90.8 × 20.8 cm); mount: 41 3/4 × 12 5/8" (106 × 32.1 cm)
Signature:
"Louise Bourgeois" lower right margin, pencil.
Publisher
Osiris
Printer
Wingate Studio
Edition:
3; plus an illustrated book edition of 12 and an edition of 5 with hand additions
Edition Information:
This composition was issued in two additional editions. It was published as part of an illustrated book titled, "One's Sleep." The illustrated book includes 18 plates with hand additions. (See Evolving Composition Diagram.)

It was also published in an edition of 5, all with hand additions (impressions 1/5, 2/5, and 5/5 with red additions; impressions 3/5 and 4/5 with blue additions).
Impression:
Verso: "2/3" lower center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
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 this edition of 3, and to include in the book "One's Sleep".
Curatorial Remarks:
The sheet for this composition has been trimmed down to the plate mark and mounted on thick paper.
Description:
Etching
Inscription:
Verso: "In the distance. / etching / 2/3" lower center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
State Changes and Additions:
Changes from version 1: mirrored composition transferred, with much taller structure, in etching.
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:
701.2006
© 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