Vase of Tears
Louise Bourgeois
American, born France. 1911–2010
c. 1946
A small, intimate print—made by combining etching, drypoint, engraving, and monotype—in which Bourgeois turns a vase into a grieving, childlike figure that stands in for memory and private feeling.
A pale, simplified body floats against a flat, vivid red field; a mask-like face streaked with rows of black teardrops and a tentative hand holding a cup makes the scratched lines and painterly ground feel both fragile and urgent.
Part of Bourgeois’s midcentury inquiry into psyche and domestic metaphor, this piece helped broaden printmaking’s expressive possibilities by treating layered intaglio and monotype like sculptural fragments of memory and emotion.
Medium
Etching, drypoint, engraving, and monotype
Dimensions
plate: 5 1/2 x 3 7/16" (13.9 x 8.8 cm); sheet (irreg.): 9 15/16 x 6 1/2" (25 x 16.5 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the artist
Accession
133.1990.2
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
