Maman (sculpture)
| Maman | |
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A bronze edition at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
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| Artist | Louise Bourgeois |
| Year | 1999 |
| Type | Sculpture |
| Medium | Stainless steel, bronze, marble |
| Dimensions | 9271 x 8915 x 10236 mm |
Maman (1999) is a bronze, stainless steel, and marble sculpture by the artist Louise Bourgeois. The sculpture, which depicts a spider, is among the world's largest, measuring over 30 ft high and over 33 ft wide (927 x 891 x 1024 cm). It includes a sac containing 26 marble eggs and its abdomen and thorax are made of ribbed bronze. The title is the familiar French word for Mother. The sculpture was created in 1999 by Bourgeois as a part of her inaugural commission of The Unilever Series (2000), in the Turbine Hall at London's Tate Modern. This original was created in steel, with an edition of six subsequent castings in bronze.
The sculpture picks up the theme of the arachnid that Bourgeois had first contemplated in a small ink and charcoal drawing in 1947, continuing with her 1996 sculpture Spider. It alludes to the strength of Bourgeois' mother, with metaphors of spinning, weaving, nurture and protection. Her mother Josephine was a woman who repaired tapestries in her father's textile restoration workshop in Paris. When Bourgeois was twenty-one, she lost her mother to an unknown illness. A few days after her mother's passing, in front of her father (who did not seem to take his daughter’s despair seriously), Louise threw herself into the Bièvre River; he swam to her rescue.
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.
Some of these editions in permanent collections often tour on exhibit:
Tours and featured exhibitions of Maman include:
The Maman, a gigantic spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, is standing outside of the Museum of Modern Art(Moderna Museet) for the exhibition.
Another view from the National Gallery of Canada
At the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao
The sculpture in La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina
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