The great mother

de Massimiliano Gioni, Roberta Tenconi, Paul Metcalfe

"Through the work by 127 international artists, The Great Mother analyzes the iconography of motherhood in the art and visual culture of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries, from early avant-garde movements to the present. Whether as a symbol of creativity or as a metaphor for art itself, the archetype of the mother has been a central figure in the history of art, from the Venuses of the Stone Age to the “bad girls” of the postfeminist era. The more familiar version of “Mamma” has also become a stereotype closely tied to the image of Italy. Published on the occasion of the major exhibition curated by Massimiliano Gioni (artistic director of the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan, and of the New Museum, New York), promoted by the Cultural Office of the City of Milan, conceived and produced by the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi in partnership with Palazzo Reale for Expo in Città 2015, the volume is devoted to womens power: in undertaking an analysis of the representation of motherhood, The Great Mother traces a history of womens empowerment, chronicling gender struggles, sexual politics, and clashes between tradition and emancipation through the work of some of the leading masters of the twentieth century, among which Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Umberto Boccioni, Louise Bourgeois, Frida Kahlo"--publisher's website.