CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/14/2023

Mother! Origin of Life

“Cold or warm, present or absent, everyone has a mother. The archetypal mother, the female figure as a symbol of life and fertility, exists across all times and cultures. Our physical and cultural origin, she ushers us into the world. Even if she is lost or absent, we are all sons and daughters.” So writes Marie Laurberg, co-curator of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art’s deluxe survey, Mother! Origin of Life—a Staff Pick for Mother’s Day 2023. Collecting 160 artworks presenting mother as motif—from prehistoric fertility goddesses to the Madonna and Child to contemporary representations of the queer mother—this volume features works by artists including Sophie Calle, Mary Cassatt, Rineke Dijkstra, Laure Prouvost, Frida Orubapo, Tracey Emin, Alberto Giacometti, Mary Kelly, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso and Alice Neel, whose 1975 painting, “Ginny and Elizabeth,” is reproduced here.