Hairy Spider
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
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.
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)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Title
Hairy Spider
Date
2001
Medium
Drypoint
Classification
Dimensions
Sheet: 19 x 16 in. (48.3 x 40.6 cm)
Signatures
Signed lower right in graphite: "Louise Bourgeois 2001"
Inscriptions
Inscribed lower left: "13/25
Credit Line
Robert A. Levinson Fund
Accession Number
2003.14
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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