MOTHER! explores changing notions of motherhood from early avant-garde movements to the present, focusing on a period in which feminist movements challenge the traditional social position of women. The right to vote, won in the early 20^th century, is later followed by ‘the pill’ and liberalized abortion laws – and with today’s focus on single motherhood, the applications of new biotechnologies, and queer family structures, motherhood and related cultural norms and expectations are renegotiated.

In the context of art, however, the subject of the mother goes beyond an investigation of women’s experiences and social position towards more general inquiries into family relationships, life and death. Everyone has a mother. Warm or cold, near or far, alive or dead, the mother is an existential starting and focal point that countless artists have treated and explored. Mother is life-giver and care-giver – or, conversely, an intimidating figure. Through her, the artist’s self-image, affiliations, origins and doubts are examined. Addressing issues of psychology, autobiography, notions of femininity, life, and death, the exhibition holds a prism to a theme which reflects the most fundamental existential issues.

Artists represented in the exhibition include: Egon Schiele, Suzanne Valadon, Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Henry Moore, Käthe Kollwitz, Mary Kelly, Catherine Opie, Sophie Calle, Max Beckmann, Rineke Dijkstra, Laure Prouvost, Kaari Upson, Ragnar Kjartansson, and many more.

Curators: Marie Laurberg and Kirsten Degel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art