Untitled

Louise Bourgeois

1911–2010

Untitled, 1991

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: drypoint

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 304 x 381 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 493 x 562 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 11 15/16 x 15 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 7/16 x 22 1/8 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 25 in

Credit line: Museum purchase: Lucy Shaw Schultz Fund

Accession number: 1992.0005

Not on display

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Past Presence

“The spiral is important to me. It is a twist. As a child, after washing tapestries in the river, I would turn and twist and wring them with three others or more to wring the water out. Later I would dream of getting rid of my father’s mistress. I would do it in my dreams by wringing her neck. The spiral—I love the spiral—represents control and freedom.” —Louise Bourgeois In works like this untitled print, Louise Bourgeois explores her memories of emotional experiences as a means of contending with her sense of self. The idea that memory and identity are closely connected goes back at least to 17th-century philosopher John Locke, who theorized that identities are constructed and reconstructed by acts of memory. Locke, and perhaps Bourgeois, believed that we come to understand who we are now by remembering who we once were.

Exhibition Label: "Modernisms: Late/Post," Mar-1997, Deborah J. Wilk Bourgeois' imagery often explores personal memories and emotional experiences. According to the artist, "The spiral is important to me. It is a twist. As a child, after washing tapestries in the river, I would turn and twist and wring them with three others or more to wring the water out. Later I would dream of getting rid of my father's mistress. I would do it in my dreams by wringing her neck. The spiral--I love the spiral--represents control and freedom.