Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood

Museums and galleries are full of paintings and sculptures of mothers, from Michaelangelo’s Madonna and Child to Da Vinci’s Madonna Lita. However art which communicates the actual experience of motherhood is much rarer. Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood seeks to address this blind spot by asserting the artist mother as an important cultural figure.

Featuring the work of more than 60 modern and contemporary artists, this major group exhibition explores the diverse experience of motherhood across three themes; creation, maintenance and loss. Its artworks explore the lived state of motherhood, presenting a complex and varied image with relation to contemporary concerns about gender, politics, caregiving and reproductive rights. At its heart is a series of revelatory self-portraits celebrating the artist as mother.

Consisting of works of painting, photography, sculpture, sound and film, Acts of Creation is accompanied by a lively programme of public events and an illustrated book published by Thames and Hudson.