The women breaking down art’s final taboo: motherhood

When British artist Catherine Elwes had a baby in 1983, she soon discovered she was expected to keep her motherhood hidden. “The show came out of a study I did on artist mothers in 2019,” says the curator Hettie Judah, who’s also an art critic and author, and co-founder of the Art Working Parents Alliance. “I also felt, when they were very little, that I was frightened of my work not quite hurting them, but… I’ve always been drawn towards ambivalence in my art, I’ve refused the judgement of good and bad, and I felt I had to protect them from that.” She never ceased making art altogether, though, and as her daughters grew up she took on a handful of commissions related to motherhood, including Preparing for Birth. “I’m definitely not just talking about biological motherhood or motherhood that’s realised – it’s important to bring into this the women who choose not to have children or who experience infertility.” Ultimately, we’re told we either better be good housewives or freeze our damn eggs Jessa Fairbrother is one such woman. “So much of my art is just perforation.” open image in gallery Caroline Walker, ‘Bottles and Pumps’, 2022 Like Elwes and Wiltshire and Cetera, Fairbrother hopes to make the culturally invisible visible.