Louise BourgeoisAmerican, 1911–2010Spider
May one see it?
Not receiving at present
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Louise Bourgeois ranks among the most influential and innovative artists of the 20th century and is renowned for her evocative sculptures, paintings, and editioned prints. Since 1973, when she returned to printmaking after a twenty-five-year hiatus, she has produced more than 100 original prints. Much of her work is autobiographical in nature, emanating from her childhood experiences and memories.
The image of the spider is a recurring motif in Bourgeois's artistic repertoire. Her mother was a weaver; restoring medieval tapestries was the family business. For Bourgeois, the spider evokes a caring mother figure, protecting her offspring from harm. Of her mother, she once observed, My best friend was my mother and she was deliberate, clever, patient, soothing, reasonable, dainty, subtle, indispensable, neat and useful as a spider.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Particulars
- Accession number
- 2000.125
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — © The Easton Foundation / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Meanwhile, in the life of Louise Bourgeois
The whole life1938–2010 · Workplace
New York City
1987–1997
New dealers: Anglim, Greve, Hufkens, Hauser & Wirth
Bourgeois began working with the Paule Anglim gallery in San Francisco in 1987, with Karsten Greve in Paris in 1990, with Xavier Hufkens in Brussels in 1996 and with Hauser & Wirth in 1997.
1993
Represents the United States at the Venice Biennale
In 1993 Bourgeois represented the United States at the 45th Venice Biennale; the American pavilion showed “Louise Bourgeois: Recent Work”.
1993
Left out of a survey of American art
In 1993 the Royal Academy of Arts staged a comprehensive survey of twentieth-century American art, but its organisers did not consider Bourgeois’s work important enough to include. The survey was criticised for many omissions, and very few women were included.
1994
“The Locus of Memory” in Brooklyn and Washington
In 1994 the exhibition “Louise Bourgeois: The Locus of Memory, Works 1982–1993” was shown at the Brooklyn Museum and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and in 1995 at the Galerie Rudolfinum in Prague.
1997 · Award
National Medal of Arts
