Tête à l'envers

Louise Bourgeois

2001

A small print—made with drypoint, engraving, aquatint, and hand additions— that turns a simplified head inside out into a hypnotic, slightly menacing face as the artist examines memory, desire, and identity.

Two dense, overlapping red spirals dominate where the eyes should be, filling a pale, upside‑down oval head outlined in thin gray and punctuated by a tiny inverted mouth and spare marks for ears and hair, creating an oddly intimate yet unsettling gaze.

A late work by Louise Bourgeois, this print distills her lifelong preoccupations—repetition, bodily vulnerability, and psychoanalytic emotion—showing how printmaking can be as sculptural and psychologically direct as her better‑known three‑dimensional pieces.

Palette

Exhibitions

Louise Bourgeois

1982

The Prints of George Rouault

1938

Women of the Nineties: Fin-de-Siècle Prints

1979

Committed to Print

1988