“Picturing Motherhood Now,” the new exhibit currently showing at the Cleveland Museum of Art is an immersive and contemporary display of modern motherhood. 34 artists display their multimedia displays, employing textiles, paintings, photography, and collages to demonstrate what motherhood means to them, and to reimagine motherhood beyond the common stereotypes used. A diverse collection of artists draw on their own cultures, histories, and ranges of feminism to show a variety of scenes of motherhood that comment upon modern social issues and challenges facing women and mothers. The exhibition shows the evolving nature of gender, history, and family, and the often painful histories of Black and indigenous women.
The diverse collection of artists, stories, and cultures create thought-provoking pieces such as the works of Titus Kaphar, which address the history of Black motherhood, and how it translates to the modern-day. His painting “Not my Burden,” shows two Black women sitting down, with the white silhouettes of two children sitting in their lap. The painting is left to interpretation, but which helps to highlight the history of Black women being forced to care for White children, or the children of Black women stolen from them, and killed. Another multimedia art piece, created by indigenous artist Wendy Red Star, depicts the women in her family in pictures, descending in a row, demonstrating the matrilineal line apparent in indigenous cultures. Another display created by LaToya Ruby Frazier depicts in photos the Flint, Mich. lead water crisis and its effect on families, especially families of color. Each art display helps to show the different meaning of motherhood in the modern age, and its meaning to a diverse collection of people.
The Motherhood now Exhibition has been shown at the Cleveland Art Museum from Saturday, Oct. 16, 2021, and will continue to be shown until March 13, 2022.
