critique practice
Art critique
The piece “Spider” by artist Louise Bourgeois is described by her as an ode to her “helpful and protective” mother. She says spiders are repairers, and her mother too is a clever repairer. It was executed from 1996-1997 and was exhibited at Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. There have been numerous variations of this piece since. It depicts a large sculpture of a spider created from bronze and steel, representing resilience and mending as previously mentioned.
Through the different variations of “Spider”, the legs and body shift in color and shape yet they all retain the same base idea- the spider itself. Some have larger bodies and some have legs with larger joins and bends. The varying features in the similar works unify them without causing it to feel repetitive.
As I look at this piece, I’m considering the artist statement and how Bourgeois claimed the spider as a weaver; a repairer. She says she “came from a family of repairers”. Keeping this in mind I think of resilience and how a spider will fight to keep its web whole. It’s comparable to how humans fight for survival, literally and figuratively. A good word to describe this work is “determined” as it depicts the spider representing her mom who was determined to “weave” things back together as Bourgeois put it.
The work itself proved monetarily as a success, selling multiple variations for multiple millions of dollars each. I personally might enjoy some extra variation when it comes to the differing pieces but there was a clear attempt made at doing so already. The idea is a unique take on symbolism since it symbolizes her mother as the spider itself and one might think of a spider as something horror related or creepy due to the correlation with Halloween but this takes a lighter approach to the idea of a spider. Overall, it’s a great idea and it’s executed exceptionally well.
The piece “Spider” by artist Louise Bourgeois is described by her as an ode to her “helpful and protective” mother. She says spiders are repairers, and her mother too is a clever repairer. It was executed from 1996-1997 and was exhibited at Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. There have been numerous variations of this piece since. It depicts a large sculpture of a spider created from bronze and steel, representing resilience and mending as previously mentioned.
Through the different variations of “Spider”, the legs and body shift in color and shape yet they all retain the same base idea- the spider itself. Some have larger bodies and some have legs with larger joins and bends. The varying features in the similar works unify them without causing it to feel repetitive.
As I look at this piece, I’m considering the artist statement and how Bourgeois claimed the spider as a weaver; a repairer. She says she “came from a family of repairers”. Keeping this in mind I think of resilience and how a spider will fight to keep its web whole. It’s comparable to how humans fight for survival, literally and figuratively. A good word to describe this work is “determined” as it depicts the spider representing her mom who was determined to “weave” things back together as Bourgeois put it.
The work itself proved monetarily as a success, selling multiple variations for multiple millions of dollars each. I personally might enjoy some extra variation when it comes to the differing pieces but there was a clear attempt made at doing so already. The idea is a unique take on symbolism since it symbolizes her mother as the spider itself and one might think of a spider as something horror related or creepy due to the correlation with Halloween but this takes a lighter approach to the idea of a spider. Overall, it’s a great idea and it’s executed exceptionally well.
