Amoeba
- Artist: Louise Bourgeois
- Date: 1963–5, cast 1984
- Medium: Bronze
- Dimensions: object: 916 x 694 x 300
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the "Amoeba" by Louise Bourgeois. It was cast in bronze in 1984 from a plaster model that the artist created between 1963 and 1965. The form is rough, almost organic, like a living creature that she imagined when she played with tadpoles in a river near her childhood home. The large swell in the middle looks like a pregnant belly – a theme Bourgeois often returns to in her work about motherhood. She once said, “For me, sculpture is the body, my body is my sculpture.” The piece hangs on the wall, unusual for her, giving it a presence that feels like a portrait of her own evolving form. It was presented by the artist in 2001 and now lives in the Tate collection.
See it in person
Amoeba is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
