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Louise Bourgeois | |||
| Born
1911 in Paris, France Lives and works in New York, NY |
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| Spider, 1997 | ||||
| bronze
with dark polished patina, cast 1997 133 x 263 x 249 inches Bebe and Crosby Kemper Collection Gift of the William T. Kemper Charitable Trust 1997.7.2 |
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| According to the artist,
the spider is a feminine hero figure. Bourgeois created the spider sculptures
to honor her mother, who was her best friend and, like a spider, was deliberate,
soothing, and patient. Spiders also create webs which refer to Bourgeois’s
early work with tapestries—her parents owned a tapestry restoration
business—so the web is a metaphor for connection-making. While the spider’s body is above your head, (it is over 11 feet tall) you may examine its legs which are smooth bronze, yet with many different bumps and ridges to create the effect of a natural shape. Each leg is different. Here our giant spider is positioned to suggest that she is walking up the lawn to attend to her baby spider which is attached to the Museum’s facade, out of reach. Bourgeois has exhibited her work in museums and galleries around the world. |