Object number1994.25
Stamp of Memories II
Date1994
Artist
Louise Bourgeois
(American b.France, 1911-2010)
Printer
Harlan and Weaver Intaglio
CultureFrench, American
MediumDrypoint and metal stamp, printed in black ink on cream wove paper
EditionEdition 8 of 15
DimensionsPlate: 16 7/8 x 9 7/8 in. (42.9 x 25.1 cm)
Sheet: 25 1/2 x 17 1/8 in. (64.8 x 43.5 cm)
Sheet: 25 1/2 x 17 1/8 in. (64.8 x 43.5 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, Lydia Evans Tunnard, class of 1936, Fund
On View
Not on viewPeriod20th c
Classification(s)
SignedOn recto, signed lower right in pencil: Louise Bourgeois.
InscribedOn recto, by artist, lower left in pencil: 8/15
ProvenancePurchased from Charles M. Young Fine Prints and DrawingsVassar Exhibitions
Exhibition HistoryPresses, Pop, and Pomade: American Prints Since the Sixties, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, January 13 - March 19, 2006; A Museum Menagerie: Highlights from the Permanent Collection, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, April 25 - August 13, 2017
Label TextStamp of Memories II is a continuation of Louise Bourgeois’ Sainte Sébastienne series, in which Bourgeois imagined a female version of the martyred Saint Sebastian, pierced by arrows. The simplified arrows in this piece point to the feminine features of the figure: her breast, her groin, her belly, her thigh. Suggesting that the figure is a self portrait, Bourgeois emblazons her skin with a stamp of her initials, “LB.” She creates an “armor” from her own stamp, protecting herself from the “arrows” of criticism she faced as a female artist. Ultimately, Bourgeois seems to ask: What does it mean to appropriate and feminize Christian imagery? How are women, specifically women artists, “martyred” by the arrows of critique? How can they protect themselves?
-Harris Neal ‘25
DescriptionA curvaceous figure with no arms steps forward with a nest containing three eggs on top of their head and various horizontal arrows pointing at different parts of the body. To the left and slightly below their face is a partially visible cat face and they are covered with a rectangular monogram with the initials ‘LB’ everywhere except their face and feet.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge.
To help improve this record, please email
loebcollections@vassar.edu
