Bronze, dark and polished patina, wall piece
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
ARTIST ROOMS
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/louise-bourgeois-2351" aria-label="More by Louise Bourgeois" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Louise Bourgeois</a>
Spider I
ARTIST ROOMS 
Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by The Easton Foundation 2013

<p>During the 1990s Bourgeois made a number of spider sculptures. She associated the spider with her mother who spent her days weaving and stitching as she repaired antique tapestries for the family business. Bourgeois explained, ‘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 she repairs it.’</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2016</em></p>
sculpture bronze dark polished patina wall piece
26 October 2013 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
26 October 2013 – 18 May 2014
2014-05-18
2013-10-26
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Edinburgh, UK)
http://www.nationalgalleries.org/
2013-10-26
ARTIST ROOMS Louise Bourgeois
Collection based display
18 July 2014 – 12 October 2014
2014-10-12
18 July 2014 – 12 October 2014
2014-10-12
2014-07-18
Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (Middlesbrough, UK)
http://www.visitmima.com/
2014-07-18
ARTIST ROOMS 2014: Louise Bourgeois
Loan-out
16 January 2015 – 19 April 2015
2015-04-19
16 January 2015 – 19 April 2015
2015-04-19
2015-01-16
Southampton City Art Gallery (Southampton, UK)
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/arts
2015-01-16
ARTIST ROOMS 2015: Louise Bourgeois
Loan-out
10 June 2016 – 18 June 2017
2017-06-18
10 June 2016 – 18 June 2017
2017-06-18
2016-06-10
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2016-06-10
ARTIST ROOMS Louise Bourgeois
Collection based display
1 September 2017 – 18 November 2017
2017-11-18
1 September 2017 – 18 November 2017
2017-11-18
2017-09-01
Perth Museum & Art Gallery (Perth, UK)
http://www.pkc.gov.uk/
2017-09-01
ARTIST ROOMS 2017: Louise Bourgeois
Loan-out
22 January 2019 – 24 March 2019
2019-03-24
22 January 2019 – 31 March 2019
2019-03-31
2019-01-22
Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge, UK)
http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/
2019-01-22
ARTIST ROOMS 2019: Louise Bourgeois
Loan-out
6 July 2021 – 16 January 2022
2022-01-16
6 July 2021 – 16 January 2022
2022-01-16
2021-07-06
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2021-07-06
ARTIST ROOMS Louise Bourgeois
Collection based display
23 July 2022 – 6 October 2024
2024-10-06
23 July 2022 – 19 November 2022
2022-11-19
2022-07-23
Rugby Art Gallery and Museum (Rugby, UK)
18 March 2023 – 26 June 2023
2023-06-26
2023-03-18
Dorset Museum (Dorchester, UK)
8 July 2023 – 9 September 2023
2023-09-09
2023-07-08
Grundy Art Gallery (Blackpool, UK)
18 November 2023 – 11 February 2024
2024-02-11
2023-11-18
Burton Art Gallery and Museum (Bideford, UK)
2 March 2024 – 9 June 2024
2024-06-09
2024-03-02
Aberdeen Art Gallery (Aberdeen, UK)
http://www.aagm.co.uk
6 July 2024 – 6 October 2024
2024-10-06
2024-07-06
Compton Verney (Compton Verney, UK)
2022-07-23
Louise Bourgeois
Loan-out
Spider I
object: 304 × 1005 × 1215 mm, 36 kg
<a href="/search?gid=999999788" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">ARTIST ROOMS</a> 
Tate and National Galleries of Scotland. Lent by The Easton Foundation 2013

<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Spider I</i> is a bronze wall-mounted sculpture with a polished black patina made in 1995 by the French-born American artist Louise Bourgeois. Taking the form of a large spider crawling up a wall, <i>Spider I</i> is fastened to the surface with two bolts that are secured through rings situated on the sculpture’s front legs. <i>Spider I</i> was produced in an edition of six plus one artist’s proof.</p>
<p>In 1995, the year that she made <i>Spider I</i>, Bourgeois published the poem ‘Ode to my Mother’ (‘Ode à ma mère’) alongside a suite of nine etchings depicting spiders that were published by Editions du Solstice, Paris. In the poem the artist relates the spider to a maternal figure, her own mother in particular, who was a weaver and the manager of the family’s antique tapestry restoration business:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>The friend (the spider – why the spider?) because my best friend was my mother and she was deliberate, clever, patient, soothing, reasonable, dainty, subtle, indispensable, neat, and useful as an araignée. She could also defend herself, and me, by refusing to answer ‘stupid’, inquisitive, embarrassing personal questions.<br/>I shall never tire of representing her.<br/>I want to: eat, sleep, argue, hurt, destroy<br/>Why do you?<br/>My reasons belong exclusively to me.<br/>The treatment of Fear.<br/>(Quoted in Tate Modern 2000, p.62.)</blockquote>
<p>The spider is a recurring motif in Bourgeois’s oeuvre. She first depicted it in a small ink and charcoal drawing of 1947 that was also entitled <i>Spider</i>, but the subject began to appear more frequently in her sculptures, drawings and prints in the mid-1990s, and she remained interested in the theme until late in life. The artist made sculptures of arachnids ranging in size from a small brooch to monumental outdoor works measuring over ten metres high. One of Bourgeois’s largest spider sculptures is the iconic <i>Maman</i> (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bourgeois-maman-t12625" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T12625</span></a>), made of steel and marble in 1999 as part of her Turbine Hall commission for the opening of Tate Modern in London in May 2000. Other versions include <i>Spider </i>1994 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bourgeois-spider-al00354" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>AL00354</span></a>).</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>
<i>Louise Bourgeois</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Modern, London 2000.<br/>
<i>Louise Bourgeois: Maman</i>, exhibition catalogue, Wanås Foundation and Atlantis, Stockholm 2007.<br/>Ann Coxon, <i>Louise Bourgeois</i>, London 2010.</p>
<p>Natasha Adamou<br/>May 2016</p>
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Summary
2016-06-10T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>During the 1990s Bourgeois made a number of spider sculptures. She associated the spider with her mother who spent her days weaving and stitching as she repaired antique tapestries for the family business. Bourgeois explained, ‘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 she repairs it.’</p>
</div>

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2016-10-12T00:00:00
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