Untitled, no. 3 of 4, from the series, Start Something!!

Cat. No. 1211, unique variant 2, in 1251

Untitled, no. 3 of 4, from the series, Start Something!!

State/Variant:
Only state, unique variant
Date:
2008
Series:
Start Something!!
Themes
Abstraction
Techniques
Etching
Support:
Paper
Dimensions:
plate (in 2 vertical parts) (overall): 59 13/16 × 33 11/16" (152 × 85.6 cm); sheet (approx.): 59 3/4 × 108" (151.8 × 274.3 cm)
Signature:
panel (c): "LB" lower right sheet, pencil.
Publisher
Osiris
Printer
Wingate Studio
Edition:
Unique
Edition Information:
This is one of 4 unique variants, printed alone or in combination with another plate in a multi-panel work. When the plate is used alone, the work is included in the Evolving Composition Diagram. When it is printed with another plate, it is included in Related Works in the Catalogue.

See Evolving Composition Diagram:
"Printemps"
"Tourbillon (#1)"
Untitled, no. 3 of 4, from the series, "Start Something!!"

See Related Works in the Catalogue:
"Love Is As Big As the Sky"

"Tourbillon" was not issued as a published edition.
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 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 an impression in MoMA's Collection. The overall mediums and sheet dimensions for the series were provided by the Louise Bourgeois Studio.
Description:
panel (a): Pencil
panel (b): Soft ground etching, with hand additions
panel (c): Pencil
Inscription:
panel (a): "Nothing doing / doing nothing / rejecting at every turn / break down!" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
panel (c): "I leave / I hide / I shut up / I look the other way" center sheet, pencil, artist's hand.
Installation Remarks:
This composition is one of 4 that constitute 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

Tourbillon

2007-2008

States
Tourbillon
Tourbillon
Unique Variants
Printemps
Untitled, no. 3 of 4, from the series, Start Something!!
Tourbillon (#1)

Series

2008

Start Something!!

Related Works in the Catalogue

I Am Still Growing!!! (#1)
Love and Kisses
Abandoned
Losing It
La Danse
Love Is As Big As The Sky

Related Works in Other Mediums

3 Graces
Untitled
Publication Excerpts

Louise Bourgeois,

Start Something!!,

New York, Osiris, 2008

Bourgeois's entire text for this series appears on the panels cited below.

No. 1:
under anxiety
I lose my identité.
I talk
I talk
I talk
I talk
and
talk.

No. 2:
I offer
I give
I propose
I perform
I show off
I have a solution
optimism.

No. 3:
Nothing doing
doing nothing
rejecting at every turn
break down!
I leave
I hide
I shut up
I look the other way

No. 4:
I look
I serve
I initiate
I start a book
a picture
a sculpture