When Tate Modern opened in 2000, the first artist to display work in the gallery’s vast Turbine Hall was Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010). Work on show included Maman (1999), the largest of her spider sculptures.
The spider has become one of Louise Bourgeois’ most well-known themes. Her parents ran a workshop for tapestry restoration. The title Maman alludes to the strength of her mother, with metaphors of spinning, weaving, nurture and protection.
Urban Sketchers London returned to Tate Modern for our sketchcrawl on Saturday 21 January 2017. Here are some of us in the Turbine Hall, looking at the sketches done that afternoon.
 |
| Photo: James Hobbs |
Although the largest spider sculpture Tate owns, Maman, is not currently on display, the new Tate Switchhouse has an Artist’s Room devoted to Louise Bourgeois. This includes two other spider sculptures on display, which some of us drew:
 |
| Lis Watkins 'Spider' |
 |
| Jo Dungey Spider 1 (1994) |
 |
| Marie Desy-Field Spider 1995 |
Hello from NYC. Your "spider" sketchcrawl sounds and looks like great fun. I was lucky to visit the LB room at the Tate's SwitchHouse in December, and took some photographs for my blog. She's such a great artist!
ReplyDelete