Louise Burgeouis- Maman Flashcards
date
1999
metaphorical subject matter
Maman means mummy in French, and thus this is a metaphorical sculpture, Not only is it about her own mother, it is also about motherhood in general.
The spider is a guardian against mosquitoes (a symbol of defence against evil). The theme of the spider is both about protector and predator.
symbol of the spider to burgeouis
The spider is, for Bourgeois, a positive and reassuring symbol, but the sheer scale makes the typically fear-inducing creature seem menacing.
literal subject matter
The monumental sculpture shows a massive spider sheltering a sac full of 17 precious marble eggs beneath her abdomen in a steel cage-like body, provoking awe and fear
Both the colour and title make it seem like a reference to a black-widow spider is being made – who eats her partner immediately after mating.
link to black widow spider AND how does this link to the symbol of Medea
Both the colour and title make it seem like a reference to a black-widow spider is being made – who eats her partner immediately after mating.
Medea is the Greek literary figure who kills her own children to spite her unfaithful husband
thus links to borgeouis’s mother whos husband had an infidelity with burgeouis’s nanny
quote about Medea
‘In Maman, motherhood assumes a potentially ferocious guise; the figure of Medea is not far away.’
Vincent Honoré
how does it draw on the greek legend of Arachne
*Spider may also be said to draw on the Greek legend of Arachne, the mortal weaver who challenged the goddess Athena and was condemned to become a spider.
how is fear provoked
-imposing industrial scale
-Like a creature escaped from a dream/nightmare, or a larger-than-life embodiment of a secret childhood fear, the giant spider Maman casts a powerful physical and psychological shadow.
-Supported on eight slender, knobbly legs, its body is suspended high above the ground, allowing the viewer to walk around and underneath it.
-hovers ominously on legs like Gothic arches
-The thin, vertical stick-like legs evoke the jerky movements of a Spider whilst conveying a poignant vulnerability.
scale
At over 9 metres/30 feet in height this is the largest sculpture that Bourgeois ever made. Maman is monumental; so large that it can only be installed out of doors, or inside a building of industrial scale.
subverting realism
*Not realistic or mimetic: rather rudimentary representation
monumental scale
legs of spider
*Supported on eight slender, knobbly legs, its body is suspended high above the ground, allowing the viewer to walk around and underneath it.
hovers ominously on legs like Gothic arches that act at once as a cage and as a protective lair to a sac full of eggs perilously attached to her undercarriage.
*The thin, vertical stick-like legs evoke the jerky movements of a Spider whilst conveying a poignant vulnerability.
*Each ribbed leg ending in a sharp-tipped point is made of two pieces of steel, and attached to a collar above which an irregularly ribbed spiralling body rises, balanced by a similar sized egg sac below.
how can we see a sense of vunerability within this sculpture
*The thin, vertical stick-like legs evoke the jerky movements of a Spider whilst conveying a poignant vulnerability.
*The meshed sac allows the viewer to look up and see the seventeen white and grey marble eggs that hang above the viewer’s head, gleaming in the darkness of their under-body cavity. The eggs feel vunerable in this thin sac
how many marble eggs are there
17, grey and white
what are the legs made out of
*Each ribbed leg ending in a sharp-tipped point is made of two pieces of steel, and attached to a collar above
how do we see emblems of maternity
We can see that this sculpture deals with femininity and domesticity.
*femininity is evoked through Small nippled bulges occur singly and in clusters in the mesh, which is also interrupted by holes that are circular, triangular and diamond in form
The meshed sac allows the viewer to look up and see the seventeen white and grey marble eggs that hang above the viewer’s head, gleaming in the darkness of their under-body cavity. The eggs feel vunerable in this thin sac
her mother was a tapestry restorer, links to the weaving of a spider, thus enhancing the metaphorical subject
sexual suggestiveness in this peice
*Small nippled bulges occur singly and in clusters in the mesh, which is also interrupted by holes that are circular, triangular and diamond in form
quote regarding the sexual suggestiveness of the nippled buldges in this work
LB, 1974 ‘There has always been sexual suggestiveness in my work. Sometimes I am totally concerned with female shapes – clusters of breasts like clouds – but often I merge the imagery – phallic breasts, male and female, active and passive.’
what was maman made for, and who commissioned it
Maman was made in 1999 for the opening of Tate Modern in May 2000 as part of Bourgeois’s commission for the Turbine Hall, the grand central space of the museum, and was eventually gifted to the Tate.
*This sculpture was the inaugural commission for The Unilever Series at the Tate Modern when it opened in 2000. This is the original, and distinct from the 6 casts.
father context
*Her father had many infidelities, including with the English nanny
when did her mother die
died when borgeoius was 21
how did borgeouis describe her mother
‘My best friend was my mother and she was deliberate, clever, patient, soothing reasonable, dainty, subtle, indispensable, neat and useful as an airagnée.’
what was her mothers profession
Her mother was a tapestry restorer
bourgeois quote on being from a family of repairers
“I came from a family of repairers. The spider is a repairer. If you bash into the web of a spider, she doesn’t get mad. She weaves and repairs it.’ 1998 interview.
motif of spiders in her ouvere
The motif of the spider has haunted Bourgeois’s oeuvre since the two 1947 drawings, but in the 1990s it became a major theme of her work, and eventually took the form of the spectacular bronze installation.
borgeoius own experience with maternity
*In the late 1930s Bourgois feared that she was unable to have children
Thus maternity is a recurrent theme in Bourgeois’s work and her view of it is complex and changeable. It frequently centres round the culture of the tragic, guilty mother, at once protective and predatory.
*On 8 August 1940 Bourgeois wrote the word maman in her diary and thereafter it appears with regularity, marking her menstrual cycle. Bourgeois’s use of this word to document her menstrual cycle accounts in part for the marble eggs placed within the body of the spider Maman – she considered menstruation a creative time
borgeois quote on the fear of not having children
‘The fear of not having children made me hysterical, it made me emotionally upset.’
was she a surrealist
*She disliked being classed as a Surrealist – but one cannot deny the influence of Surrealism on her. She visited Constantin Brancusi’s Parisian atelier.
why did she move from 2d to 3d in her work
*Bourgeois’s move from two-dimensions to three was motivated by a desire to heighten the ‘reality’ of her work. In contrast to the illusory space of painting, sculpture engaged with real space; through its physical material, it allowed for a different way of making art as well as a different kind of engagement with the viewer.
artistic background as apainter and sculptor
*She trained as a painter, but claims her first sculptures were made out of bread and dough at the dinner table to distract herself from her parents’ fighting.
material
*This is a mixed-media sculpture made of industrial stainless steel and classical marble.
*The marble is more fragile than the bronze – like the fragility of actual eggs in the sac
borgeoius quote on marble
‘Marble is the sugar of stones.’
how many versions were ther of this peice
*An edition of six bronze casts was created subsequent to Tate’s original steel version; their marble eggs have pinker tones.
*Christie’s have sold smaller versions of her Bronze spider sculptures for more than $28million.
*The subsequent casts of Maman can be found outside public museums in Canada, Bilbao, Tokyo, Seoul, Arkansas & Doha. The sculptures are popular and often go on tour around the world
how was she aided to be more daring with her materials in her artistic journey
*She had a large studio space in Brooklyn that allowed her to be more daring with materials.
