Tag: favorite drawing

Dorothea Tanning   (1910-2012)
 Tango
etching, 1953
total edition of 50 signed and numbered on arches with Arabic numerals, 30 signed and numbered on arches with Roman numerals and an unspecified number of proofs including 2 signed color trial proofs with aquatint on Arches, 2 signed artist’s proofs on Arches and 1 signed B.A.T.
plate size 3 3/16" x 2½" (8.3 x 6 cm.)
printed by George Visat, Paris
Literature:  Dorothea Tanning: Hail, Delirium!, New York Public Library, 1992, catalog no.7, pp.25, 89
…Now the discovery is Georges Visat, master etcher. Up two flights of worn steps to reach a room crowded with etching presses, three of them. The handles and their big wheels are thickened with years of etchers’ black ink. Some of the same will soon ink my second etching, two dancers scratched into a tiny copper plate. One of them is a dog (my dog) who, over the years, shows up in many avatars, as constant as a talisman.
     -Dorothea Tanning,

Femme Maison

State/Variant:Version 1 of 2, only state

Date:1947

This composition appeared first in an ink on linen work of 1946-47, and was then used for an exhibition brochure for “Louise Bourgeois: Paintings” on view at Norlyst Gallery, New York from 10/28-11/8/1947. The composition was also reproduced on the cover of Lucy Lippard, “From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women’s Art,” (New York: Dutton, 1976); and for an exhibition poster for “‘Louise Bourgeois Sculpture/The Prints of Louise Bourgeois” at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, on view 10/15-12/31/1995.

Artist’s Remarks:“I consider this perfect… it brings the personal together with the environment… it is a symbiosis of one with the universe… it is a kind of acceptance.” The figure “is serene… it doesn’t mind.” But Bourgeois added, “There is a sexual loneliness. She is dignified, but she is alone… she has no companion. The little hand is trying to call for help. She is not sexual at all. Her head does not know that she is naked. She has no hair or bosom… they are occupied by work.” (Quote cited in Wye, Deborah and Carol Smith. “The Prints of Louise Bourgeois.” New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994, p. 148.

Louise Bourgeois. Girl Falling. 1993. State II of IV, variant. Drypoint, with hand additions. plate: 10 ¾ x 7 3/8" (27.3 x 18.7cm); sheet: 14 13/16 × 11" (37.7 × 28 cm). unpublished. Harlan & Weaver, New York. 5 known impressions of state II. Not numbered. Gift of the artist. 111.1994. © 2018 The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, NY. Drawings and Prints

Louise Bourgeois. Sainte Sébastienne. 1990. Version 1 of 2, state V of XII, variant. Drypoint, with hand additions. plate: 16 ¾ x 9 15/16" (42.6 x 25.3 cm); sheet: 24 ½ x 18 1/8" (62 x 46 cm). unpublished. Gravure, New York. 4 known impressions of version 1, state V. Not numbered. Gift of the artist. 598.1993. © 2018 The Easton Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, NY. Drawings and Prints