maman (sculpture)

Maman was created By Louise as an ode to the loving but tumultuous relationship that the artist shared with her mother. Maman was created to express the complexity of the relationship that parents have with their children.

Where is Maman spider now?

Maman is currently displayed outside of the entrance to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario after being purchased by the Gallery for $3.2 million in 2005. Maman, according to Bourgeois, represents a female spider who carries her white marble eggs beneath her.

Why is Maman so big?

Summary. Maman is a monumental steel spider, so large that it can only be installed out of doors, or inside a building of industrial scale. Supported on eight slender, knobbly legs, its body is suspended high above the ground, allowing the viewer to walk around and underneath it.

How long did it take to make the Maman sculpture?

Louise Bourgeois

Over 30 feet high, the mammoth sculpture is one of the most ambitious undertakings in the long career of Louse Bourgeois. Over a vast oeuvre spanning more than sixty years, Bourgeois plumbed the depths of human emotion further and more passionately than perhaps any other artist of her time.

Is the sculpture Maman a sculpture in the round?

Maman is French for “mom.” It is an example of sculpture in the round. Maman is a metaphor for the way Bourgeois’s felt about her own mother.

Why does Louise Bourgeois like spiders?

Perhaps influenced in part by her early years at the tapestry restoration business, Bourgeois once explained that she chose the spider as a subject because its traits reminded her of her mother.