Untitled
Louise Bourgeois
American, born France. 1911–2010
1999
A drypoint-and-monotype print with hand-painted additions by Louise Bourgeois that reduces a human face to a raw, crimson maw—an effort to make visible private anxieties, bodily intensity, and memory.
At first glance a large, painterly red mass—suggesting an open mouth, heart, or wound—fills a simply drawn oval head, with tiny, startled eyes and looping scribbles for hair set against cool blue washes that frame the figure.
Created late in her career, it shows Bourgeois translating her sculptural, confessional practice into printmaking, expanding how hybrid techniques can convey psychological and bodily experience.
Medium
Drypoint and monotype, with hand additions
Dimensions
plate: 11 13/16 × 8 15/16" (30 × 22.7 cm); sheet: 16 3/4 x 11 1/4" (42.5 x 28.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the artist
Accession
987.2008
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
