Louise Bourgeois is an extremely talented artist from France. She was born in Paris, then emigrated to the US in 1938. She began her art career primarily as an engraver and sculptor. She eventually found her niche in sculpture. Her early pieces were often abstract shapes carved in wood. She experimented with materials such as rubber, bronze, and stone as well. The central theme of the bulk of her pieces is her childhood. She often uses portrays family relationships and sexuality of family life in her works. One concept seen in her artwork is the role of sexuality and innocence of humans and the conflicts between the two. "Maman," pictured above is a sculpture of a female spider and happens to be the piece for which Bourgeois is most renowned. It is a 30 foot tall sculpture is made of stainless steel. Underneath the body of the spider are 26 marble eggs. The sculpture was first displayed in London in 2000. Since, she has made many bronze casts appearing in other museums around the world. It is one of the world's largest sculptures. The intended message behind the spider was very surprising to me because, personally I am not a huge fan of spiders. Bourgeois' intention was that the spider would represent her mother, hence the us of the french word for mother, "maman." Her mother was not only her nurturer and caregiver growing up, but also her best friend. The ways in which she compared her mother to a spider actually made a lot of sense. Her mother worked in the tapestry business. So similar to a spider weaving a web, her mother wove tapestries. She also considered her mother to be clever, like a spider. In Bourgeois' opinion spiders were protective and helpful because they killed harmful mosquitos. Furthermore, she thought of her mother as protective due to her maternal instincts. In these ways, it makes a lot of sense why Bourgeois would choose to make such a large sculpture representing her mother, someone very important to her. She created the spider to appear scary and threatening because of the great size, yet also vulnerable because of the marble eggs hidden beneath the spiders' belly. It seems that Bourgeois wanted to bring forward the ideas surrounding the relationship between mother and child. In her particular case, this was a good relationship, which she portrayed through the protectiveness of the spider. She hints towards sexuality because of the eggs . It seems as though she wants to bring forth the vulnerability of females in general as well.
I think her artwork is amazing. In this particular work, I thought she brilliantly combined making this huge sculpture that one may assume would have some blatant and obvious meaning, when in my opinion the meaning is a bit more subtle. I personally think a vital part of the sculpture is the sac of eggs which is underneath the body of the spider and can't be seen from most pictures of the piece. I really like how she created this huge spider, but was still able to include some nice subtleties. Obviously it was a popular sculpture because she created other versions that have been placed in many other museums. I really like this sculpture and much of her other pieces that I cam across. I think she was very successful in getting her point across in a creative way. I honestly can't think of any way she could change the sculpture to improve it. I think it serves it's purpose as is! She is a fantastic artist!
