Cat. No. 1253
The Voice Says Yes
- Date:
- 2009
- Themes
- Abstraction, Fabric Works, Figures, Nature
- Techniques
- Etching
- Support:
- See individual.
- Dimensions:
- Plate and sheet sizes vary. See individual.
- Signature:
- See individual.
- Publisher
- Osiris
- Printer
- Wingate Studio
- Edition:
- Unique
- 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:
- The hand additions and paper type on individual sheets throughout the series could not be documented because this work is not in MoMA's Collection and could not be examined in person. The plate dimensions are from impressions in MoMA's Collection. The overall mediums and sheet dimensions for the series were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.
- Description:
- Series of 3 compositions: 4 soft ground etchings, all with hand additions (watercolor, gouache, ink, and colored pencil), and 1 fabric collage
- Installation Remarks:
- This series of 3 compositions constitutes a single work of art. All of these compositions are to be exhibited together in the indicated sequence.
© The Easton Foundation/VAGA at ARS, NY
Publication Excerpts
Louise Bourgeois,
The Voice Says Yes,
New York, Osiris, 2009Bourgeois's entire text for this series appears on the panels cited below.
No. 1:
The voice
says
yes
No. 2:
say it
sign it
sing it
write it
shout it
howl it
but in your own way
No. 3:
I want the world to know
I want history to record it
I am calling you
you
you
you
you
It is my total
commitment
I want nothing else