Maman (1999) is a bronze, stainless steel, and marble sculpture in several locations 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 (9.27 × 8.91 × 10.24 metres). It includes a sac containing 32 marble eggs. Its abdomen and thorax are made of rubbed bronze.

The title is the familiar French word for Mother (akin to Mummy or Mommy). 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, repaired tapestries in her father's textile restoration workshop in Paris. When Bourgeois was 21, she lost her mother to an unknown illness. A few days after her mother's death, 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.Louise Bourgeois, 5 March – 2 June 2008 Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Permanent locations National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada – The National Gallery of Canada acquired the sculpture in 2004 for $3.2 million. The price took around a third of the annual budget of the gallery.Home To Maman: getting to know the mother of all sculptures in the Ottawa landscape Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan – On display at the base of Mori Tower, outside the museum. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, United States Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea Qatar National Convention Center, Doha, Qatar Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri, United States

Temporary locations Tours and featured exhibitions of Maman include:

2001: Rockefeller Center Plaza, New York, United States 2001: City Hall, The Hague, Netherlands 2002: State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia 2003: Nytorv, Copenhagen, Denmark

2005: Havana, Cuba 2006: Mariakerke, Ostend, Belgium. 14 June 2018.

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

2011: Fundacion Proa, Buenos Aires, Argentinade Arteaga, Alicia (13 February 2011). "Una araña gigante en La Boca" . La Nación. Retrieved 18 February 2011. 2011: Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM), São Paulo, Brazil 2011: Bundesplatz, Bern, Switzerland, 24 May – 7 June 2011 Bürkliplatz, Zurich, Switzerland, 10 June – 2 August 2011 Place Neuve, Geneva, Switzerland, 3 August – 28 August 2011–2012 Beyeler Foundation, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland, 3 September 2011 – 8 January 2012 2012 Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany, 23 January – 17 June 2012 Qatar National Convention Centre, Qatar – The Maman sculpture; exhibited from 20 January – 1 June, 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.Louise Bourgeois Solo Show to Open in Qatar The exhibit was organised by the Qatar Museums Authority.Louise Bourgeois: Conscious and Unconscious 2012–2013 Roppongi Hills, Tokyo, Japan 2014 Qatar National Convention Centre, Doha, Qatar, February 2013-2014 Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico, 15 November 2013 – 2 March 2014 2015 Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden, January 2015 – 17 May 2015 Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia, 25 September – 7 February 2020 Museum Voorlinden, The Hague, Netherlands, until 17 May 2020–2021 Fundação de Serralves, Porto, Portugal, December 2020 – February 2021 2022 Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Athens, Greece, 30 March – 6 November 2023 Palace Park in Oslo, Norway, 24 April - August 2023–2024 Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, 25 November 2023 – 28 April 2024 2025- Khao Yai Art Forest, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand

See also Cultural depictions of spiders List of artworks by Louise Bourgeois

Gallery

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)