Maman (sculpture)

''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 32 marble eggs and its abdomen and thorax are made of ribbed bronze.

The title is the familiar French word for ''Mother'' (akin to ''Mummy''). 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.

Bourgeois chose the Modern Art Foundry to cast the sculpture because of its reputation and work.

Philosophy and meaning

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''.Louise Bourgeois, ''Spider'' (1996)
Christie's Post-War Contemporary Evening Sale, 8 November 2011, New York. 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.

Permanent locations

* Tate Modern, UK – The permanent acquisition of this sculpture in 2008 is considered one of the Tate Modern's historical moments. ''Maman'' was first exhibited in the turbine hall and later displayed outside the gallery in 2000. It was received with mixed reactions of amazement and amusement. The sculpture owned by the Tate Modern is the only one made from stainless steel.
* National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada – The National Gallery of Canada acquired the sculpture in 2005 for 3.2 million dollars. The price took around a third of the annual budget of the gallery.
* Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain
* Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan – On display at the base of Mori Tower, outside the museum.
* Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, South Korea
* Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, USA
* Qatar National Convention Center, Doha, Qatar

Temporary locations

Tours and featured exhibitions of ''Maman'' include:

* 2001: Rockefeller Center Plaza, New York
* 2001: City Hall, The Hague, The Netherlands
* 2002: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
* 2003: Nytorv, Copenhagen, Denmark

* 2006: Mariakerke, Ostend, Belgium

* 2007: Wanås Castle, Sweden
* 2008: Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, France
* 2008: Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
* 27 March 2007 – 2 March 2008: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts
* 18 October 2008 – 25 January 2009: Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy

* 2011: Fundacion Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentinade Arteaga, Alicia (13 February 2011)
"Una araña gigante en La Boca"
''La Nación''. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
* Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM), São Paulo, Brasil, 2011
* Bundesplatz, Bern, Switzerland, 24 May 2011 – 7 June 2011
* Bürkliplatz, Zürich, Switzerland, 10 June 2011 – 2 August 2011
* Place Neuve, Geneva, Switzerland, 3 August 2011 – 28 August 2011
* Beyeler Foundation, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland, 3 September 2011 – 8 January 2012
* Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 23 January 2012 – 17 June 2012
* Qatar National Convention Centre, Qatar – The ''Maman'' sculpture; exhibited from 20 January – 1 June 2012, at the Qatar National Convention Centre as the centerpiece of the Conscious and Unconscious exhibition; the first solo exhibit of Bourgeois' work to be displayed in the Middle East. The exhibit was organised by the Qatar Museums Authority.
* Roppongi Hills, Tokyo, Japan, 2012 – 2013
* Qatar National Convention Centre, Ad-Dawhah, Qatar, February 2014
* Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico, 15 November 2013 – 2 March 2014
* Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, January 2015 – 17 May 2015
* Museum Voorlinden, The Hague, the Netherlands, until 17 May 2020
* Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Portugal, December 2020 - February 2021
* Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens, Greece, 30 March 2022 - 6 November 2022

See also

*Cultural depictions of spiders
* List of artworks by Louise Bourgeois
* ''Spider'' (Bourgeois)
*Featured in Denis Villeneuve's 2013 film, ''Enemy''.

Gallery

File:Maman at Stockholm, Sweden.jpg, Exhibited at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden.
File:NGC Maman.JPG, At the National Gallery, Ottawa, Canada
File:Maman de Louise Bourgeois - Bilbao.jpg, At the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
File:Maman ZH.jpg, At Lake Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
File:Maman Spinne Kunsthalle HH.jpg, At Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
File:Maman by Louise Bourgeois at Palacio de Bellas Artes.jpg, At Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico

References

External links

''Maman'' spider sculpture debuts in Ottawa
– CBC Archives (Broadcast: 10 May 2005)

''Video'' : "They climb it"
– Vimeo

Louise Bourgeois – ''Maman''
– National Gallery of Canada (videos)

{{Public art in Tokyo

Works by Louise Bourgeois
1999 sculptures
Spiders in art
Bronze sculptures in Canada
Bronze sculptures in Japan
Bronze sculptures in the United States
Stainless steel sculptures
Steel sculptures in the United Kingdom
Outdoor sculptures in Arkansas
Outdoor sculptures in Tokyo
Sculptures of the Tate galleries
Collection of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Colossal statues in the United States
Colossal statues in the United Kingdom