LOUISE BOURGEOIS CROUCHING SPIDER WEAVES a mother’s nurture to San Francisco
16 November 2007
‘The Crouching Spider,’ a concept meant to honor the delicate tapestry of spinners, was dedicated Thursday on the San Francisco Embaracdero at the foot of Mission Street. World renowned sculptor Louise Bourgeois, now 96-years-old, developed the concept over a thirteen year period. This two and one-half ton bronze sculpture is on loan to San Francisco for at least eight months as part of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Sculpture in the City Program.
Photo by Bill Wison
BY PAT MURPHY
Sentinel Editor & Publisher
Copyright © 2007 San Francisco Sentinel
Her mother was a spinner, a weaver, when as a child Louise Bourgeois learned the repair of intricate tapestry.
Fragile threads of emotive color became the child’s first introduction to the world of the Art, a world where the tools to marvel at life, to capture a moment’s understanding, and to imprimatur her own ‘let this be believed’ rested in Bourgeois crafting.
Louise Bourgeois
Mapplethorpe Gallery Photo
A Parisian who moved to New York in 1938, her recognition as one the world’s leading contemporary artists spanned seven decades brining Bourgeois the National Medal of Arts from President Clinton in 1997.
Her creative foundation stayed with her — the weaving of expansive perception.
The spider as weaver defined the woman’s root cause and mothering as prime action.
Indeed, another child grown woman, Susan Leal, recalled her own mother’s admonition to Susan that she never kill a spider.
Leal, director of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) which funds the Crouching Spider San Francisco public exhibition, explained her mother’s reasoning during the November 15 morning dedication.
Susan Leal
Photo by Bill Wison
“When I was a child she would never let me kill spiders,” Leal recalled her mother’s instruction.
“Because, she said, ‘Never kill them — they’re one of the most important parts of nature.’
“So it’s come full circle for me. We’re very happy as the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to be participants in helping make San Francisco more beautiful.”
SFPUC public information director Laura Spanjian, at left, with Susan Christian.
Photo by Bill Wison
Leal explained SFPUC funding of City public art.
“As you know, we are doing a number of major infrastructure programs, basically seismicly upgrading our water system so that when the next one hits we will not be, our piplines, our tunnels will not be severed in a major earthquake,” related Leal.
“One of the benefits of the infrastructure program we have is that money we are able to set aside for public art.
“When we heard about the possibility of getting this sculpture we thought it was very apropos.
“You know, in the Hetch Hetchy system and those who benefit from the wonderful Hetch Hetchy system, we are also stewards of nature.
“We get the bounty of nature.
“One of the ways to express our gratitude for that is to display public art which also has a connection to nature.”
Photo by Bill Wison
San Francisco is now more Arts oriented than at any time in its history, reported emcee PJ Johnston, who serves as president of the San Francisco Arts Commission and as film critic of the San Francisco Sentinel.
San Francisco Arts Commission President PJ Johnston
Photo by Bill Wison
“Things don’t happen in San Francisco, particularly audacious things, unless you have the full support, the full commitment, of City Hall Room 200,” Johnston noted, “and the energy and the enthusiasm for the Arts as of our Mayor, Gavin Newsom, who is very much an Arts person.
“We really enjoy at the San Francisco Arts Commission perhaps the greatest commitment to focus on Arts in San Francisco — whether it’s public art or support for non-profit arts organizations or performing arts, visual arts, you name it — because Gavin Newsom is the most Arts focused mayor in the City’s history.”
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom
Newsom confirmed his love for the Arts and public art in particular.
“I love this type of art,” Newsom began, “I don’t like it — I love it.”
“I think the vast majority of San Franciscans love this type of public art.
“We can do so much more.
“We have done in the last few years as much or more than in previous years, and I’m pleased with that, but I know that the best is yet to come.
“I know what’s in the queue in terms of temporary art and I also know what’s in the queue for permanent art.
“Not just the 85 pieces which were just completed on that 5.1 mile new light rail system but all these new public projects that are underway like transbay permanent artists who will have permanent art.
“So there is really an exciting energy in San Francisco right now for public arts.
“There’s more money now for the Arts, grants for the Arts… I’m commited that we’re really going to step up the funding and we’re really going to challenge people to think differently and to act differently.
“I say act diffrerently because what public art does, like great architecture and design, is not just physical.
“It changes your perspective. It changes the way you walk, the way you talk.
“If you think that’s just gobbledegook, I challenge you to walk into any magnificent building with an extraordinary atrium and tell me that doesn’t change your physiology, that doesn’t create a pattern where you stop and say, ‘Migosh, look how beautiful this is, look how magnificent this is, look how challening this is and enter a diffferent kind of conversation.’
“That’s what Ms. Bourgeois will represent to people. They will be casually driving down the block and see it, they’ll be casually walking down the street or jogging and they’ll stop.
“Ninety-six years-old she’s still with us. What a gift it is to this City to have a world class, internationally renowned artist… to have San Francisco finally lay claim to one of those pieces of Art.”
Arts Commissioner Larry Rinder, who authored Louise Bourgeois: Drawings & Observations with Bourgeois and serves as Dean of the California College of the Arts, spoke to the significance to women of Bourgeois work.
Larry Rinder
Photo by Bill Wison
“She persisted, and she persisted even as her male colleagues excelled around the world, and she continued without bitterness, without giving up,” stated Rinder.
Bourgeous continued “to work in an incredible variety of media, not just sculpture, but painting and drawing, installation art — she even recorded a rap CD,” Rinder stressed.
“She also to this day continues to welcome and encourage younger artists to come visit her home with the offer of feedback on her work.”
Louise Bourgeous now weaves nurture to San Francisco across the generations.
BILL WILSON
Sentinel Photojournalist
Bill Wilson is a veteran freelance photographer whose work is published by San Francisco and Bay Area media. Bill embraced photography at the age of eight. In recent years, his photos capture historic record of the San Francisco LGBT community in the Bay Area Reporter (BAR). Bill has contributed to the Sentinel for the past five years. Email Bill Wilson at wfwilson@sbcglobal.net.
PAT MURPHY
Sentinel Editor & Publisher
In his youth, Pat Murphy worked as a General Assignment reporter for the Richmond Independent, the Berkeley Daily Gazette, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He served as Managing Editor of the St. Albans (Vermont) Daily Messenger at age 21. Murphy also launched ValPak couponing in San Francisco, as the company’s first San Francisco franchise owner. He walked the bricks, developing ad strategy for a broad range of restaurants and merchants. Pat knows what works and what doesn’t work. His writing skill has been employed by marketing agencies, including Don Solem & Associates. He has covered San Francisco governance for the past twelve years. Pat scribes an offbeat opinion column of the human family. Email Pat Murphy at SanFranciscoSentinel@yahoo.com.
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