Untitled

Louise Bourgeois

1999

A drypoint print with hand additions in which Louise Bourgeois pares a head down to a soft oval and a few red, sketchy marks to evoke a private, vulnerable presence.

You first notice the enormous, empty oval face rimmed by quick red hatchstrokes and looping curls, with only two small eye-dots and a tiny mouth, producing a childlike, oddly haunted stare.

Produced late in her career, this work shows how Bourgeois transformed printmaking into an intimate, confessional gesture—using minimal line and hand-coloring to explore memory, psyche, and the body’s emotional traces.

Palette

Art Terms

Drypoint Intaglio Print Portrait Contemporary art Gestural Investigating identity

Exhibitions

Louise Bourgeois

1982

Women of the Nineties: Fin-de-Siècle Prints

1979

Projects: Louise Lawler

1987

Dubuffet: Works on Paper

1986