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Bronze Spiders Makes Manhattan Appearance

Edition #92: Winter 2001

Monumental bronze spiders on display at Rockefeller Center
Monumental bronze spiders on display at Rockefeller Center earlier this year.
Famed sculptress Louise Bourgoeis' spiders, her favorite subject, are spreading around the world. After many visitors enjoyed them at Rockefeller Center in New York, two more of the 30-foot-high, eight-ton bronze "mother" spiders have gone on display in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Bilbao, Spain.

The spider at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg is part of a retrospective showing of Ms. Bourgeois' creations. It will be mounted outside. The Spanish spider is indoors at the famous Guggenheim museum in Bilbao designed by architect Frank Gehrey. Earlier, the spiders in steel were on display at the Tate Modern in London.

"Clutching"
"Clutching" a 1962 bronze sculpture by Louise Bourgeois.
For the past 20 years, Ms. Bourgeois' bronze sculptures have been cast at Modern Art Foundry, Astoria, NY. They are usually cast in a series of six. However, only three of the latest group, one "mother" spider and three "babies," have been cast so far, according to Jeffery Spring, vice president of the foundry. The spiders are cast in a silicon bronze, C87300, supplied by J. Kuhl Metals Company, Kearney, N.J. The legs are cast in two sections, while the bodies are cast in three parts.

Ms. Bourgeois, who is 90 years old and still active, was born in France, but has lived in the U.S.A. since 1938. Incidentally, if an organization wants to purchase one of her many bronze spiders, Ms. Bourgeois is represented by Cheim & Read, New York-based art dealers.

Bourgeois Studio: 212/924-4274

Cheim & Read: 212/242-7727

Kuhl Metals: 201/998-8300

Modern Art Foundry: 718/728-2030

 

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