Maman

Maman
The bronze casts outside the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
The bronze casts outside the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
The bronze cast outside the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao.
The bronze cast next to Lake Zürich, Zürich.

Maman (1999) is a sculpture by the artist Louise Bourgeois. The sculpture, which resembles a spider, is over 30ft high and over 33ft wide, with a sac containing 26 marble eggs. Its abdomen and thorax are made up of ribbed bronze.[1] The title is the familiar French word for Mother.

Maman is amongst the world's largest and most impressive sculptures. Bourgeois created "Maman " as a part of her inaugural commission of The Unilever Series in 1999 for Tate Modern Museum's vast Turbine Hall. Acquiring this magnificent sculpture is considered as one of the Tate Museum's historical moments. Maman was first displayed outside the Tate Museum of London in 2000. It was received with the mixed reactions of amazement and amusement.

The sculpture picks up the theme of the arachnid that Bourgeois had first contemplated in a small ink and charcoal drawing in 1947.[2] It alludes to the strength of Bourgeois' mother, with metaphors of spinning, weaving, nurture and protection.[3] Her mother Josephine was a woman who repaired tapestries in her father's textile restoration workshop in Paris.[4] Bourgeois lost her mother at the age of twenty-one. A few days afterwards, in front of her father who did not seem to take his daughter’s despair seriously, she threw herself into the Bièvre River; he swam to her rescue.[5]

The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. My family was in the business of tapestry restoration, and my mother was in charge of the workshop. Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother.

— Louise Bourgeois[3]

Contents

Locations

Permanent

In addition to the stainless steel version owned by the Tate Modern, London,[6] there are several bronze casts, located at:

  1. Spider (1997) measures at 94 x 94 x 84 inches. The bronze cast was one of 16 sculptures initially donated to the Des Moines Art Center by John and Mary Pappajohn.[7] The Pappajohn Sculpture Park, a 4.4-acre site completed in September 2009, now contains 24 sculptures worth around $40 million.[8]

Temporary

Bronze statues of Maman have also been temporarily placed in:

Art market

Bourgeois’s 2006 sales made her the best-paid living woman artist after a buyer paid $4 million for an 8-foot spider at Christie’s in London. She eclipsed the record in 2008, when another spider fetched $4.5 million.[10] In 2011, made $10.7 million, a new record price for the artist at auction, against an estimate of $4 million to $6 million.[11]

References

  1. ^ Louise Bourgeois, Spider (1996) Christie's Post-War Contemporary Evening Sale, 8 November 2011, New York.
  2. ^ Louise Bourgeois, Spider (1996) Christie's Post-War Contemporary Evening Sale, 8 November 2011, New York.
  3. ^ a b "Tate acquires Louise Bourgeois’s giant spider, Maman". Tate. http://www.tate.org.uk/about/pressoffice/pressreleases/2008/13904.htm. Retrieved 2008-01-11. 
  4. ^ Louise Bourgeois, Spider (1996) Christie's Post-War Contemporary Evening Sale, 8 November 2011, New York.
  5. ^ Louise Bourgeois, 5 March - 2 June 2008 Centre Pompidou, Paris.
  6. ^ Previously on long-term loan, it was acquired in 2008: Tate acquires Louise Bourgeois’s giant spider, Maman.
  7. ^ "John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park". http://www.downtowndesmoines.com/western_gateway/pappajohn_sculpture_park.php. Retrieved 16 November 2010. 
  8. ^ Rubiner, Betsy (October 30, 2009). "Cure for Urban Blight: Plant Lots of Sculpture". The New York Times. http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/travel/escapes/30desmoines.html. Retrieved 16 November 2010. 
  9. ^ de Arteaga, Alicia (February 13, 2011). "Una araña gigante en La Boca". La Nación. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
  10. ^ Felix Kessler (May 31, 2010), Louise Bourgeois, Sculptor of Freaky Giant Spiders, Dies at 98 Bloomberg.
  11. ^ Louise Bourgeois, Spider (1996) Christie's Post-War Contemporary Evening Sale, 8 November 2011, New York.

External links

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