Mother! Origin of Life

Throughout history, across cultures, the role of the mother has shifted, expanding at times and narrowing at others, as family structures are by turns questioned and reinforced. This volume of art and literature on representations of the mother figure in art history ranges across religion, music, film and medicine. Works by Marcel Proust, Rachel Cusk, Lydia Davis, Gustave Flaubert, Sylvia Plath and Hans Christian Andersen meditate on motherhood alongside a wealth of visual material.Although the volume’s main focus is on 20th-century and 21st-century art, Mother! Origin of Life reaches back through history to trace artistic motifs from the prehistoric era to Ancient Greece to the Renaissance, noting how contemporary artists continue to tap into such universal themes. Between more than 150 artworks, expert texts and a short anthology of motherhood in literature, this publication reveals how depictions of motherhood in the arts have been linked to broader cultural perceptions.
Artists include: Sophie Calle, Mary Cassatt, Rineke Dijkstra, Laure Prouvost, Frida Orubapo, Tracey Emin, Alberto Giacometti, Mary Kelly, René Magritte, Alice Neel and Pablo Picasso."
ISBN 9788793659384. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. hb. 128 pages. 150 colour, 10 b/w ills. 22 x 26 cm.
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