{"data":{"id":"23919","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":23919,"topgoose_id":17635,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":23919,"title":"Yes","display_artist_text":"Louise Bourgeois","display_date":"2004","accession_number":"2005.6","dimensions":"Sheet: 22 5/8 × 21 1/2 in. (57.5 × 54.6 cm)\r\nPlate: 17 1/4 × 18 1/4 in. (43.8 × 46.4 cm)","medium":"Etching with opaque watercolor, and colored pencil","department":"collection","classification":"Prints","credit_line":"Purchase, with funds from the Print Committee","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":"7/12","publication_info":"Printed by Wingate Studio; published by Benjamin Schiff","description":"\u003cp\u003eLouise Bourgeois, \u003cem\u003eYes\u003c/em\u003e, 2004. Etching with opaque watercolor, and colored pencil, sheet: 22 5/8 × 21 1/2 in. (57.5 × 54.6 cm)\r\nPlate: 17 1/4 × 18 1/4 in. (43.8 × 46.4 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from the Print Committee 2005.6. © The Easton Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eIn her drawings and prints, Louise Bourgeois often incorporated texts ranging from single, often repeated, words to longer statements. At the center of this drawing, she wrote a sentence in red pencil: “I held his eyes within my gaze and I would not let them go.” The words float in a pale white disc, which is encircled by a light gray ring. The overall form resembles a pale eye with a dead-on gaze. In its outer ring, wobbly script proclaims \u003ci\u003eyes\u003c/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eyes yes \u003c/i\u003eover and over. Despite the precision of the sentence, the mantra-like recurrence of “yes” suggests the point at which language becomes abstract. Completed in tandem with other intimate works on paper during the months of 2003 and 2004, \u003ci\u003eYes\u003c/i\u003e recalls her earlier \u003ci\u003eInsomnia Drawings\u003c/i\u003e (1994-1995), a suite of sketches of replicating motifs, unconscious images, and poems that came to mind for Bourgeois during her wakeful nighttime hours.\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"A pale blue square framing a circular cluster of handwritten yes marks around a red central poem.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T17:39:29.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T12:01:23.799-05:00","images":[{"id":107040,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/23919/2005_6_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"157","type":"artist"}]}}}}