Stamp of Memories I
Louise Bourgeois American
Printer Harlan & Weaver, Inc. American
Publisher Peter Blum Edition
Not on view
Stamp of Memories I derives from the print Ste Sebastienne (1990), in which Bourgeois created a mythical female version of the martyred Saint Sebastian. As the print progressed, she added a menacing cat’s face and three eggs, perhaps alluding to her three sons, and covered the figure’s body and hair with circular stamping. Acting as a kind of skin or protective armor, the stamp contains the interlocking letters “LB.” Although "LB" corresponds to the artist’s initials and thus can be read as a kind of signature, this particular stamp belonged to her father, Louis Bourgeois. With this work, Bourgeois sought to reject her father’s stamp and all that it symbolized. In 1994, she produced Stamp of Memories II, which features the same image of Sebastienne, but with her body covered in the less ornate block letters of the artist's own stamp.
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