Picturing Motherhood Now
As I dive into the dynamics of the parent and child relationship, it's important to understand the way parenthood is depicted in popular media and specifically in art. I am not a parent myself so investigating the way parenthood is depicted may be able to give me an, admittedly narrow, lens into the grand task of having children.
This article from an exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art features several artists from varying backgrounds that all share their perspective of motherhood.
There is a long history of picturing motherhood. That history illuminates the culture from which it springs. What, then, do contemporary pictures of motherhood say about our own time?
The artists use motherhood as a lens through which to examine contemporary social issues—the changing definitions of family and gender, the histories and afterlives of slavery, the legacies of migration, and the preservation of matrilineal Indigenous cultures.
Here, as in many of her paintings, the artist depicts individuals who are not often the subjects of portraiture; in the case of undocumented immigrants, the stakes of visibility are especially poignant.
Still You Bloom in This Land of No Gardens 2021. Njideka Akunyili Crosby (left) and Not My Burden 2019. Titus Kaphar (right) (Liebert, 2021)
[...] her motivation for creating this work is to offer an alternative to the negative images of Black motherhood ubiquitous in mass media.
Working across media, and drawing on a range of feminisms, they challenge familiar archetypes, construing motherhood as a term with many meanings.
The bond between a mother and child is a concept that is front and center in each of these artworks and the subjects gaze pierces right through your heart. The emotion of the mothers is felt strongly. It's a feeling of stress and a busy life but also an indication of the mothers dedication and pride for their children.
Parents are just as much symbols of admiration and inspiration to children as they are to their parents. It's important for parents to reflect the characteristics of the person they want their children to become.
References
Liebert, E. (2021, August 25). Picturing Motherhood Mow. clevelandart.org. https://www.clevelandart.org/articles/picturing-motherhood-now
