Untitled or The Burning Pin America, 20th century

Untitled or The Burning Pin

1990

Louise Bourgeois

(American, 1911–2010)

America, 20th century

drypoint

Sheet: 49.3 x 56.2 cm (19 7/16 x 22 1/8 in.); Image: 31 x 38 cm (12 3/16 x 14 15/16 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 1991.229

Catalogue raisonné: Wye 96

State: III/III

Location: not on view

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Description

Louise Bourgeois was an artist of remarkable power and mystery. She believed that making art is the process of giving tangible form to, and thus exorcising, the gripping, subconscious states of being that fill one with anxiety. Her unique vision has resulted in an extremely personal body of work of emotional intensity that defies easy definition. Bourgeois comments on spirals: "This is a way of going on . . . it is like a thread of thought . . . or a dance . . . you go here, you go there . . . you keep reaching out to others. It is wishful. You can not hurt me . . . you can not stop me . . . you can not break my thread of thought. I made it into a pattern . . . it is a kind of grid . . . there is order. Then there is the safety pin. I like the idea of the safety pin . . . it is dangerous, but it also holds up my whole attire. Safety pins can keep things together . . . they can prevent catastrophe."