Louise Bourgeois' Monumental 'Spider' to Make Auction Debut at Sotheby's this May

At once beautiful and haunting, familiar and uncanny, Louise Bourgeois’ monumental Spiders stand among the most entrancing and ambitious artistic achievements of the twentieth century. Hailing from the apex of Bourgeois’ mature practice, the poignant series serves as a testament to the enduring appeal of the artist, capturing the most fundamental human emotions — love and fear — in sculptural form. Her most widely recognizable and renowned body of work, Bourgeois’ monumental Spiders are today key highlights of the most prestigious museum and private collections all over the world.

This May, Sotheby’s will offer Spider from 1996 - an early and profoundly significant example of Bourgeois’ most iconic motif, and one of just four monumental Spiders to ever appear at auction.1 A cast of this Spider has not appeared at auction in over a decade, with other editions of this cast held in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri. 

Creating a reverential awe to all who approach, Spider soars over 10 feet tall and measures more than 18 feet across, its imposing scale evoking the experience of a child looking up at their mother in adoration. Bourgeois imbues her spellbinding arachnids with deeply personal memories of her childhood; their delicate legs and needle-like forms hold memories of her own mother, a skilled tapestry weaver and restorer whose death deeply affected the artist. Encapsulating the artist’s contradictory associations with motherhood, the spider represents both a formidable predator and an industrial repairer and protectress, exquisite yet severe. The artist’s most poignant symbol, her Spiders are both universal and deeply personal, as Bourgeois draws upon to articulate the shared, infinitely complex experience of motherhood. 

The sculpture emerges from the Fundação Itaú, having remained in the prestigious institutions’ collection in São Paulo for more than two decades. The Fundação Itaú acquired the sculpture in 1996 - the year of the work’s execution - after it was featured at the 23rd Biennial de São Paulo in a dedicated salon of the artist’s work. The artist also designed the logo of the 1996 Biennial, an intricate spiral design that recalls both a web and the spiraling core of her Spider (pictured below).

While this sculpture was an early, core component of the Fundação Itaú collection when it was acquired more than 25 years ago by Olavo Setubal – art collector and one of the founders of Itaú Unibanco -— the Fundação now primarily focuses on collecting and promoting works by artists based in Brazil. Dedicated to initiatives in culture, education, and health in Brazil, funds raised from the sale of the work will be fully allocated to strengthening the structure and continuity of Itaú Cultural. Formed as part of Banco Itaú’s long tradition of investing in arts and culture, Itaú Cultural was created 35 years ago to channel its initiatives in these fields. Overseen by the Fundação Itaú, Itaú Cultural offers extensive free cultural programming including exhibitions, plays, attractions for children and more at its headquarters in São Paulo and throughout Brazil, in partnership with other institutions. See below for more information on Itaú Cultural and its impact on the arts and culture in Brazil.²