Spider by Louise Bourgeois from 1996 comes up at Sotheby’s Contemporary evening auction in New York on May 18 with an estimate of $30-$40 million. The most ambitious embodiment of her signature motif her towering Spiders stand among the most iconic sculptures of the twentieth century. This is one of just four monumental spiders ever to appear at auction and is number one from an edition of six plus in bronze one artists proof in steel.
Bourgeois imbues the delicate curves and needle-like limbs of her Spiders with memories of her mother, a tapestry weaver. Achieving a lithe grace that belies its towering scale, Spider is emblematic of the deeply personal visual lexicon that defines her artistic practice. One of just 42 known monumental Spiders represented through 11 distinct forms — and over a third of which are in museum collections — the present work emerges from the Instituto Itaú Cultural, having resided in the prestigious museum’s collection in São Paulo for over twenty-five years. It is being sold to benefit the foundation.
