The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 13, 2024

Untitled

Untitled

c. 1950
(American, 1911–2010)
America, 20th century
brush and black ink and gray wash, with white paint and traces of black chalk(?) and blue crayon
Sheet: 55.9 x 71.2 cm (22 x 28 1/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1998.112
© The Easton Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

Louise Bourgeois made many drawings throughout her career but kept them in her studio for decades, rarely exhibiting them.

Description

Throughout most of the 20th century, Louise Bourgeois used abstract art as a means to explore her own subconscious and autobiography. This drawing dates from a period during which the artist developed a vocabulary of expressive lines—typically parallel marks and closely spaced hatching—to convey both compulsion and movement. It belongs to a series that Bourgeois titled "skein" drawings, referring to their long thin lines that suggest thread and the texture of weaving. This symbolism was personally significant, as the artist's family sold and restored tapestries and she first learned to draw while assisting in their workshop. She also compared the rolling forms in drawings such as this to the raw power of water, both within nature and in the context of spa treatments her mother received at a spa for emphysema around this time, adding further meaning to the sheet.
  • after 1950-by 1983
    Private Collection, New York, NY
    ?-1998
    BP America, Inc., Cleveland, OH
    September 8, 1998
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: pp. 270-271, 298; Reproduced: p. 271
    according to New York 1982-83, 50, pl. 25
    Gorovoy, Jerry. The Iconography of Louise Bourgeois. Exh. Cat. New York: Max Hutchinson Gallery, 1980. Reproduced: n.p.
    Wye, Deborah. Louise Bourgeois. Exh. Cat. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1982. Reproduced: plate 25
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Cleveland Acquires Major New Sculpture, Rare Chinese Prints, Contemporary Prints, Drawings & Photographs,” October 30, 1998, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Mentioned: p. 121, no. 90
  • The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    Louise Bourgeois. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (November 3, 1982 - February 8, 1983).
    The Iconography of Louise Bourgeois. Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, NY (1980).
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled|url=false|author=Louise Bourgeois|year=c. 1950|access-date=13 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1998.112