Untitled

Cat. No. 934.1

Untitled

State/Variant:
Version 1 of 2, only state
Date:
c. 1992
Themes
Nature
Techniques
Photogravure
Support:
Smooth, wove paper
Dimensions:
plate: 11 × 7 1/2" (27.9 × 19.1 cm); sheet: 18 × 13 1/2" (45.7 × 34.3 cm)
Signature:
Not signed
Publisher
unpublished
Printer
Harlan & Weaver
Edition:
2 known impressions of version 1
Edition Information:
Proof before the editioning of version 2.
Impression:
Not numbered
Background:
As explained in his published postscript to "Homely Girl, a Life," Peter Blum expressed to Bourgeois his wish to do a book at the time of their collaboration on the 1990 "Anatomy" portfolio. For a long time, he had also been interested in publishing a book by American playwright Arthur Miller. While looking with Bourgeois at the book "Portraits," a collection of photographs by Miller's wife Inge Morath, which included a portrait of Bourgeois, Blum had the idea of bringing author and artist together. The publisher proposed a collaborative project, which appealed to both.

Miller visited Bourgeois's sculpture-filled Brooklyn studio and saw there, among many other works, several pieces in her series Cells, which concerns the senses of sight, hearing, and smell. Miller selected for the project an unpublished text whose subject is a romance between a girl and a blind man.
Former Cat. No.:
W & S 134
Description:
Photogravure
Inscription:
Verso: "LB photogravure for homely girl - abandoned" lower center sheet, pencil, unknown hand.
Artist’s Remarks:
"There is a conversion here from the intense, precise study of nature ... toward something larger. Consider the arid and dangerous mountain range ... but with the sun showing up again. The darkness of the accident does not prevent the birth of a beautiful new day ... it is a kind of awakening, but on a more global level." (Quote cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. “The Prints of Louise Bourgeois.” New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 219.)
MoMA Credit Line:
Gift of the artist
MoMA Accession Number:
1269.2012
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY

Untitled, plate 9 of 10, from the illustrated book and portfolio, Homely Girl, A Life

1992

Source

1991

Red ball point pen and ink on envelope drawing for print #9 for Homely Girl, A Life
First Version
Untitled
Second Version
Untitled, plate 9 of 10, from the illustrated book, Homely Girl, A Life, volume I
Untitled, plate 9 of 10, from the portfolio, Homely Girl, A Life

Portfolio

1992

Homely Girl, A Life

Illustrated Book

1992

Homely Girl, A Life, volumes I and II

Related Works in the Catalogue

Horizontal Mountain Landscape
Lacs de Montagne
Anatomy
Death of a Dog and Acid Rain

Related Works in Other Mediums

Untitled
Untitled
Untitled