À Baudelaire (#9): The Impossible

Cat. No. 729

À Baudelaire (#9): The Impossible

State/Variant:
Unique variant
Date:
2010
Themes
Abstraction, Nature
Techniques
Etching
Support:
Paper (5 attached sheets)
Dimensions:
sheet (overall): 60 × 176" (152.4 × 447 cm)
Signature:
panel (a): "Louise Bourgeois" lower right comp.
panel (c): "LB" lower right comp.
panel (e): "Louise Bourgeois" lower right comp.
Publisher
Osiris
Printer
Wingate Studio
Edition:
Unique
Edition Information:
A number of works share the title "À Baudelaire." These works include 9 unique variants with extenstive hand additions, and an edition. The titles of the unique variants are listed below:

“À Baudelaire (#1)”
“À Baudelaire (#2)”
“À Baudelaire (#3)”
“À Baudelaire (#4)”
“À Baudelaire (#5)”
“À Baudelaire (#6)”
“À Baudelaire (#7)”
“À Baudelaire (#8): Silence Is a Form of Intimacy”
“À Baudelaire (#9): The Impossible”
Impression:
Not numbered
Background:
Benjamin Shiff, the director of the Osiris imprint, collaborated with Bourgeois in a highly experimental phase of printmaking that occupied the last years of her life, from 2005 to 2010. He first established a working relationship with the artist in the 1990s, but the late period is particularly noteworthy for the innovative and complex large-scale projects that evolved at that time. Shiff made use of professional workshops for printing, but he oversaw the creation of the printing plates as Bourgeois worked on them in her home studio. He also provided assistance as she added extensive hand additions and texts, and as she combined individual compositions into multi-panel works and illustrated books.
Curatorial Remarks:
Plate dimensions are not given due to partial inking. For full plate dimensions, see the respective editioned impressions. The color of hand additions, medium of the signature, type of paper, and sheet dimensions could not be documented because this impression is not in MoMA's Collection and could not be examined in person. The sheet dimensions were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.
Description:
panel (a): Soft ground etching, with watercolor, gouache, and pencil additions
panel (b): Pencil
panel (c): Soft ground etching, with watercolor, gouache, and pencil additions
panel (d): Pencil
panel (e): Soft ground etching, with watercolor, gouache, and pencil additions
State Changes and Additions:
Matrices:
This 5-panel work is made up of 3 plates and 2 texts. The plates are used in other compositions, but are partially inked here. These plates, fully inked, were issued in editions as 3 separate compositions, which are noted below and can be seen in Related Works in the Catalogue.

Panel (a): plate from "Les Fleurs"

Panel (b): plate from "The Unfolding"

Panel (c): plate from "À Baudelaire"
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY

À Baudelaire (#9): The Impossible

2010

Unique Variants
À Baudelaire (#9): The Impossible

Related Works in the Catalogue

The Unfolding
À Baudelaire (#1)
À Baudelaire (#2)
À Baudelaire (#3)
À Baudelaire (#4)
À Baudelaire
À Baudelaire (#5)
À Baudelaire (#6)
À Baudelaire (#7)
À Baudelaire (#8): Silence Is a Form of Intimacy
Les Fleurs

Related Works in Other Mediums

Untitled
Les Fleurs
Untitled, no. 1, from the series, Eugénie Grandet
Collage
Eye to Eye
Forêt (Night Garden)
Homage to Bernini
Baroque
Publication Excerpts

Louise Bourgeois,

À Baudelaire (#9): The Impossible,

2010

Text panel 1 of 2:
I
write and
make sculpture
to be loved
for
what I am
this is a lost cause

Text panel 2 of 2:
What comes in between
this substitute and the
"what"?
DEATH?
this is impossible