The Mother and The Weaver: Art from the Ursula Hauser Collection at The Foundling Museum, London

A must see this February

It may seem that I’m at an exhibition every week at the mo, it’s true, there are so many brilliant shows to see right now in London and this one ends at the weekend 18th February 2024.

The Mother and The Weaver: Art from the Ursula Hauser Collection at The Foundling Museum

My second time visiting this show, (note; explaining ‘costume change’ in these photographs!) this time with the bonus of a guide, the Hauser and Wirth curatorial senior director Tanya Barson.

This was super interesting, and gave me a greater understanding of the art, and absolute respect for the curation work in relation to the existing artwork and decor of the museum itself.

“With a title inspired by the work of Louise Bourgeois, it addresses the theme of the unseen mother, and evokes profound ideas of childhood, identity, sexuality, love and loss, and the complexities of both giving and being the recipient of care.”

“I came from a family of repairers. The spider is a repairer. If you bash into the web of a spider, she doesn’t get mad. She weaves and she repairs it.” Louise Bourgeois.

The spider is the most recognisable motifs in Louise Bourgeois’ work. These spiders refer to her own mother, who was a weaver and worked in the family’s tapestry restoration business. As spiders ‘weave’ thread from their own bodies, they are also a symbol of female creativity.

Seen here – the large metallic spider sculpture, in the ornate Rococo-style room featuring green walls and awe-inspiring eighteenth-century oil paintings and the ceiling has it’s own hand mirror to save you straining your neck to look at its wonder.

The Foundling Hospital is dear to our hearts, as our ‘Auntie’ Ethel was a Coram Foundling* fostered by my grandparents in the forties.

The Foundling Museum a fascinating museum in its own right so this exhibition is a happy bonus if you can get to see if before the weekend is out.

The Foundling Museum exhibition brings together over 40 works by 17 women artists, alongside the history and collections of the Foundling Hospital (founded in 1739) and Museum.

A couple of favourites for me from left, Nicola L., Giant Woman Sofa A tan leather sculpture of a reclining woman. Amy Sherald, Hope is the thing with feathers (The little bird); and Sylvia Sleigh, At The Turkish Bath, 1959.

An absolute hero of an artist of mine pops up again at the Barbican exhibition – Sheila Hicks, with her experimental weavings and sculptural textile art. (more on that later in the week)

And Walk With Me, 2020 © Lorna Simpson; moving image featuring three women collaged from vintage Jet and Ebony magazine cut-outs. The figures subtly move and blink every few seconds.