Classroom Activity

Art Starters: Louise Bourgeois

Part of Art Tales for Pre-K

Louise Bourgeois made many sculptures of spiders. Some are just a few inches tall (as big as an apple) and some are over thirty feet tall (as big as a building). To the artist, the spider—patient and protective—was a symbol for her mother.

The sculpture has elongated, thin legs sprawled out in various directions. It is made of bronze, giving it a dark, metallic appearance that contrasts with its surroundings. At the center of all the legs is a cylindrical shape elevated off the ground which appears to be a body. There are grooves and indentations along the legs and body. The setting is outdoors, in a garden or park area, with grass and hedges surrounding the sculpture. In the background, there are trees with foliage in shades of orange and yellow. There are also several outdoor chairs visible under the trees.
Louise Bourgeois, Spider, 1996, cast 1997, bronze with silver nitrate patina, Gift of The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, 1997.136.1

Grade Level

Subject

Language

Look

What five words would you use to describe this sculpture?

How many legs does it have? Count them.

Imagine if this sculpture came to life. How would it move? How might people react to it? What do you think the spider would want to do?

Read

The Itsy Bitsy Spider
by Maddie Frost

The story of the classic children's song.

La pequeña arañita
by Chad Thompson

The story of the classic children's song, translated into Spanish.

Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois
by Amy Novesky and Isabelle Arsenault

This book offers the biography of Bourgeois and tells the story of her close relationship with her mother.

Make: A symbolic sculpture

You Will Need

  • Paper
  • Pencil
  • Lightweight wire

Think of an important person in your life—a family member, teacher, friend, or even yourself! What makes that person special? What words would you use to describe that person? What do they like to do?

Now think of an animal or creature that shares one or more of those special things that remind you of your important person. Like Louise Bourgeois, you can use an animal as a symbol to represent that person.

Before you begin working with the wire, you might want to draw your animal or creature with your pencil and paper.

Then, carefully bend and twist the wire to create a sculpture of your animal or creature. Try wrapping or coiling the wire around a pencil to make its rounded parts.

Display your sculpture so that you can see all of its sides, or use string to hang it in the air. What will you call it?

Vocab Bank

  • coil
  • protective
  • represent
  • sculpture
  • symbol

Download

Art Tales: Coloring and Cut-Outs booklet (PDF, 3.5 MB)

Art Tales for Pre-K (PDF, 7.2 MB)

Primeros Pasos En El Arte (PDF, 7.5 MB)

Primeros Pasos En El Arte: Colorear y Recortes (PDF, 3.7 MB)

Visit

Register for the Art Tales pre-K school tour

Submit Student Work

Send images of your students' projects that follow these activities - email [email protected]

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