We are proud to offer some early engravings by Louise Bourgeois (French-American, 1911-2010).
"In 1946 Bourgeois finally found her way to Atelier 17, the intaglio workshop that Stanley William Hayter had moved from Paris to New York in 1940. The expertise of Hayter and the array of international artists who worked there made the Atelier a center of printmaking activity in the city. When asked about the Atelier Bourgeois noted the social setting, she stated, 'There were a lot of interesting people there…' The Chilean artist Nemecio Antunez, who spoke French became a good friend, and she developed a close relationship with Joan Miró when he was at the workshop in 1947. Bourgeois undertook there her most important print project of the forties: the book/portfolio He Disappeared into Complete Silence."
*Thanks to Deborah Wye, from The Prints of Louise Bourgeois, (New York, NY, Museum of Modern Art, 1994)
From this period, we have Hanging Weeds (Wye #56), 1949. Ours is a strong, elegant proof after the third state. We also have a proof impression of Plate 3 from the folio, He Disappeared into Complete Silence, 1947. These rare works came to us from Hayter’s own print collection, as did Nemecio Antunez’s City Dwellers, 1950. Antunez (Chilean, 1918–1993) later became a major figure in Chilean art.
