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Hairy Spider
Contemporary Art
While spiders may be threatening creatures to many people, for Louise Bourgeois they represent a nurturing quality that she associates with her mother. In a maternal fashion, the spider weaves a perfect web that serves as a protective barrier and provides food. For Bourgeois, the spider also suggests the patience and industriousness that served her mother well as a skilled weaver in the family business of tapestry restoration. Thus, the image of the spider is capable of evoking both threat and tenderness; such a meeting of supposed opposites or a reconciliation of conflicting or even contradictory states is one of the most characteristic features of Louise Bourgeois’s art.
PRINTERS
Carol Weaver; Felix Harlan
PUBLISHER
Harlan and Weaver Intaglio
MEDIUM
Drypoint
DATES
2001
DIMENSIONS
Sheet: 19 x 16 in. (48.3 x 40.6 cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed lower right in graphite: "Louise Bourgeois 2001"
INSCRIPTIONS
Inscribed lower left: "13/25
COLLECTIONS
Contemporary Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
2003.14
CREDIT LINE
Robert A. Levinson Fund
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Louise Bourgeois (French–American, 1911–2010). Hairy Spider, 2001. Drypoint, Sheet: 19 x 16 in. (48.3 x 40.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Robert A. Levinson Fund, 2003.14. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2003.14.jpg)
EDITION
Edition: 13/25. Edition of 25, plus BAT, 7 AP, 5 PP.
IMAGE
overall, 2003.14.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2004
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
© artist or artist's estate
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