Untitled or The Burning Pin

1990

Louise Bourgeois

(American, 1911–2010)

Culture

America

Medium

drypoint

Measurements

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.)

Credit Line

John L. Severance Fund 1991.229

Catalogue raisonné

Wye 96

State

III/III

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Location

Not on view

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."