Tate unveils Bourgeois exhibition

Bourgeois made a series of spider sculptures in the 1990s

Tate Modern is to stage the UK's first major exhibition of work by sculptor Louise Bourgeois in October.

Bourgeois, 95, is perhaps best known for creating the giant spider which dominated the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall when it first opened in May 2000.

The exhibition will see her seminal work, The Destruction of the Father, shown in the UK for the first time.

More than 200 other pieces, many of which explore themes of family and relationships, will be on display.

Born in France, Bourgeois initially worked for her parents - who ran a workshop in Paris restoring tapestries.

She moved to America in 1938 after marrying art historian Robert Goldwater, and studied painting under Vaclav Vytlacilm, a founding member of the American Abstract Artists.

Autobiographical

The Destruction of the Father has not been displayed in the UK before

Her own work was semi-abstract, initially consisting of organic shapes carved from wood, then painted black or white.

In the 1960s, she began to work in different materials such as stone, metal or latex, often producing sculptures vaguely reminiscent of the human body.

Her work also began to become more overtly sexual, and often dealt with autobiographical themes of parenthood and betrayal.

Also on display at the gallery, on London's South Bank, will be one of the artist's series of giant spider sculptures from the 1990s.

Standing nine metres high, Maman shows a female spider carrying white marble eggs, and alludes to the strength of the mother.

The exhibition, simply titled Louise Bourgeois, opens at Tate Modern on 11 October 2007 and will run until 20 January 2008.