What makes French-American artist Louise Joséphine Bourgeois’1999 sculpture Maman essential viewing

Making art accessible to children, one artist and one artwork at a time

Why?
In the summer of 2015, I was visiting the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, when I found myself in front of a terrifying, larger-than-life sculpture of a spider. I was captivated by it, and I have re-visited it many times after. This colossal sculpture, called “Maman” (mother), is the perfect representation of the artist Louis Bourgeois‘ mother. Despite its terrifying appearance, the spider looks graceful and mighty at the same time. Just like she saw her mother.

Maman was created in 1999 in bronze, stainless steel, and marble. It is among the world’s largest sculptures, measuring over 30 ft high and 33 ft wide. (Pic source: Cop Shiva)

In her own words: “The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver…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.”
It is precisely in childhood, and in her relationship with her mother, that the roots of the artist’s creative process are found. Bourgeois was born in 1911 in Paris and her parents owned a gallery that dealt primarily in restoring antique tapestries. Bourgeois grew up watching her mother weave and mend frayed fabrics, and she taught herself the trade when she was 12. Her mother’s death following a long illness when she was 21 inspired her to abandon mathematics and pursue a career in arts. For Bourgeois, who adored her mother, this was a traumatic episode that influenced her work. Her mother, even though she was loving, was also possessive and controlling with her: this can be seen in the sculpture, which is an archetype of a caring but strong mother.

This sculpture was created in 1999 in bronze, stainless steel, and marble. It is among the world’s largest sculptures, measuring over 30 ft high and 33 ft wide. It includes a sac containing 17 marble eggs which she protects within a steel cage-like body balancing on long and slender legs. “Maman” is a mighty female, standing like a mythological beast protecting her children.

I have always felt very inspired by this work because in my work I also look for intimacy and the memory as a source of inspiration. Indeed, Bourgeois’ imagery and sculptures are wholly autobiographical. In her work, she relives her childhood traumas, obsessions, and longing for a mother and a caring father. Her art evokes her psyche, and her art practice becomes a therapeutic or cathartic process to fulfil a desire to connect with loved ones and re-construct fading memories.

A former police constable, the self-taught artist uses photography as a means to document reality. Apart from exhibitions across the world, he has showcased his work at Chobi Mela in Bangladesh and the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, and is a recipient of 2017 grant of Prohelvetia-Switzerland and Swedish Art Council