Details
Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010)
Untitled
signed with the artist's initials 'LB' (lower right)
ballpoint pen, felt-tip pen and graphite on paper
11⅞ x 8⅞in. (30 x 22.5cm.)
Executed in 1997
Provenance
Xavier Hufkens, Brussels (acquired directly from the artist).
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2004.
Exhibited
Malmö, Malmö Konsthall, Louise Bourgeois, Recent Works, 1998.
Humlebaek, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Louise Bourgeois: Life as Art, 2003.
Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.
Brought to you by

Lot Essay

‘The spiral is an attempt at controlling the chaos … It has two directions. Where do you place yourself, at the periphery or at the vortex?’
Louise Bourgeois

Executed in 1997, Untitled is an intimate work on paper by Louise Bourgeois. For Untitled, Bourgeois inked a series of rust red concentric circles, like the whorls of a fingerprint or the rings of a tree trunk, filling much of the page. The line itself is uneven, at times delicate and bumpy, with a dense, pulsating centre. Untitled has been featured in two major Bourgeois retrospectives, first in the exhibition Louise Bourgeois Recent Works at Malmö Konsthall and more recently, in 2003, at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Within a practice that probed the overlap of nature and the corporeal, much of Bourgeois’ work concerned distortion: the pliable body, the repetition of form, a Surrealism of figure. Untitled feels like a detailed close-up, but of what exactly is unknown. Bourgeois was completely enthralled by the spiral, and it remained a recurrent motif that traversed mediums and decades throughout her prolific career. She has traced this fascination to the washing and wringing out of textiles in the River Bièvre, a childhood chore for her family’s textile restoration business. That the spiral’s allure endured owed much to its inherently conflicting nature; for Bourgeois, spirals are at once both outwards and inwards, the still point at the centre of disorder.
Bourgeois has made drawings her entire life, again tracing the act to her parents’ business for which should would pencil in the patterns that needed to be rewoven. Later, drawing allowed for an immediacy that was otherwise unavailable through sculpture, and abstracted images in particular allowed her to slip into a loose rhythm, a freedom of the unconscious: ‘I get my ideas down quickly. They don't offer the physical resistance that making sculpture does. The drawings do not involve the body the way that sculpture does’ (L. Bourgeois, ‘Artist Louise Bourgeois reveals her thoughts on drawing’ The Guardian, September 18, 2009, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/sep/19/louise-bourgeois-on-drawing). Indeed, in Untitled’s looping spiral, the line presents a boundless accumulation and endless possibility.
Post Lot Text
Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot. You must pay us an extra amount equal to the resale royalty and we will pay the royalty to the appropriate authority. Please see the Conditions of Sale for further information.

Related Articles

Sorry, we are unable to display this content. Please check your connection.

More from
First Open Online
Place your bid Condition report

A Christie's specialist may contact you to discuss this lot or to notify you if the condition changes prior to the sale.

I confirm that I have read this Important Notice regarding Condition Reports and agree to its terms. View Condition Report