Motherhood as topic in contemporary painting: Jenny Saville and Marlene Dumas
Abstract
Due to the unequal distribution of caregiving tasks, which still exists today, motherhood can be an obstacle to the professional development of many women artists. However, given the right conditions, this is not an insurmountable challenge, and in fact there are renowned artists who are also mothers. In this article, two of them, Marlene Dumas and Jenny Saville, are taken as case studies. Both are critical of previous interpretations of motherhood, due to its excessive sentimentality and idealization, and they seek to reinterpret this topic from their personal experience. We analyse the way in which both approach the subject, what contributions they make to previous versions and to what extent having children influences their artistic creation. In both cases, the experience of motherhood inspires a part of their artworks at a certain moment, even opening a new stylistic line in Saville’s work, but it does not define them as artists, since their production is not limited to this aspect.
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