Louise Bourgeois

Christie’s New York, Barry Friedman: The Eclectic Eye,

Evening Sale and Day Sale, March 25, 2014, lot 56

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Diana Küppers, Künstlerschmuck = objets d'art, Hirmer, Munich, 2009, pp. 24, 25 for another example

Diane Venet, From Picasso to Jeff Koons: The Artist as Jeweler, exhibition catalogue, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, 2011, p. 126 for another example

Emmanuel Guigon, Bijoux D'artistes: Une Collection, Silvana Editoriale, Milan, 2012, p. 56 for another example

Chus Burés, Chus Burés: Portraits & Jewellery, Brizzolis, Madrid, 2016, pp. 78-9

Diane Venet, Bijoux d'Artistes, de Calder à Koons, la collection idéale de Diane Venet, Flammarion, Paris, 2018, p. 39 for different version

Toledo Museum of Art, Mar. 11 Art Minute: Louise Bourgeois, ‘Shackle Necklace’ for another example

Picasso to Jeff Koons: The Artist as Jeweler, New York, Museum of Art and Design, 2011 - 2012

Athens, Benaki Museum, 2012

Miami Beach, Florida, Bass Museum of Art, 2013

Seoul, South Korea, Hangaram Design Museum, 2013 - 2014

Paris, Credit Municipal de Paris, Bijoux d'Artistes: Une Collection, 2012 - 2013

Paris, Helmut Lang, Spring/Summer Haute Couture, 2003

Louise Bourgeois’ Choker necklace is shocking; its resemblance to a shackle summons a severe image. Bourgeois designed the piece in 1948 and can be seen wearing it to dinner with her father, Louis, at Leon & Eddie’s nightclub in New York during his visit to the city. This example was fabricated between 1999 and 2003 in a limited edition of 39 by the Spanish artistic jeweler, Chus Burés. For 10 examples in the edition, Burés also designed a string of 14 clear crystals that hangs from the middle hole in the lower part of the necklace. Bourgeois’s “universe is particularly introspective… betraying her reflections on the unconscious, femininity, the family, sexuality, and the relationship to the human body.” (Diane Venet, From Picasso to Jeff Koons: The Artist as Jeweler, Milan: Skira, 2011, p. 124.) The fashion designer Helmut Lang, who was friends with Bourgeois, presented the necklace along with his 2003 Spring/Summer collection in Paris.