Pablo Picasso – Maternité - Mother (1971)

Exhibition poster with the work, Maternité - Mother (1971), by the Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), produced in conjunction with the Louisiana exhibition, MOTHER, in 2021. The exhibition presented a large unfolding narrative of the mother and motherhood in Western art and culture—illuminated through visual art, film, music and literature.

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 cultures and time. The mother designates our way into the world. She is our physical starting point and cultural origin. Even when she is lost or absent, we are all children of our mother.

Louisiana's exhibition illuminated the mother from ancient mother goddesses and Renaissance Madonna images to the creepy mother of horror films and up to contemporary art's new interpretations of motherhood. Unfolded and illuminated in interaction between art, literature, music, film, religion and cultural history.