VALIE EXPORT in Acts of Creation Hettie Judah on curating art and motherhood

Why is art about motherhood still taboo?

i's chief art critic, curator of a new exhibition, asks why this work has stayed out of sight for so long.

By Hettie Judah

Where have you seen real motherhood represented in one of our great art galleries? Not the self-sacrificing devotion of the Virgin Mary, or the angelic wholesomeness of a Victorian matriarch or even the silent domesticity painted by the Impressionists, but actual motherhood – years of broken nights, ridiculous laughter, reading practice, nosebleeds, scraped knees, teenage arguments and broken hearts.

For centuries, motherhood has largely been represented through the work of artists who have not experienced it first-hand. Real experiences of motherhood with all its mess, emotion and unpredictability have not been visible. In part, this is because art by women has been side-lined in the 20th century, and well into the 21st. Topics that were considered “women’s subjects” – including motherhood and the domestic realm – were considered of minor importance.

But it is also because so much about women’s experiences around conception, pregnancy and birth was considered taboo. Infertility, miscarriage, birth trauma, abortion, the mixed feelings (including rage and depression) women can feel on becoming mothers – these were subjects that were spoken about in private, if at all. They were certainly not considered subjects for serious art, of the kind that gets exhibited in big public galleries. Even today, many women carry their experiences and feelings as secrets for decades.

A wealth of art about real motherhood exists, but as I have discovered in researching for my new exhibition Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood and its accompanying book, quite often it stays out of sight for years in artists’ portfolios, or damp sheds. (One beautiful pregnancy self-portrait made in the 80s couldn’t be included in the show because it was damaged by a leaky roof). Sometimes work is purchased for a collection but never shown. Too often, decades-worth of work is discovered after an artist’s death. An enormous amount has disappeared – thrown away or destroyed.

I have been preparing for this exhibition for five years, and as well as digging through archives, I’ve interviewed artist mothers and collectives, asking them about their experiences and their work. These conversations have been intense, open and often emotional. Artists have spoken to me about their experiences of miscarriage, of trying for years to have a child who never came, or of feeling they would never be able to make work again because their life was consumed by caring for and supporting their families.