Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood by Hettie Judah

Long taboo, lived experience of motherhood—and all that accompanies it—has become the subject of urgent discussions within the art world. Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood proposes the artist mother as an important cultural figure, though one long overlooked. Modern and contemporary artists such as Berthe Morisot, Barbara Hepworth, Jenny Saville, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Betye Saar, Suzanne Valadon, Louise Bourgeois, Carrie Mae Weems, and many others, address motherhood as a creative enterprise, albeit one tempered variously by ambivalence, exhaustion, and grief. Renowned author and critic, Hettie Judah, also addresses the conventions and expectations of motherhood through the lens of queer theory, environmental anxiety, and alternative family models.