American novelist Barbara Kingsolver once said that sometimes the strength of motherhood is greater than natural laws. And one could add that it transcends arbitrary, man-made ones as well.

Portrayals of motherhood can be found in the art of prehistoric and ancient civilisations as matriarchal societies celebrated the central role of motherhood, the life-giver, the Madonna. Michelle Gialanze’s current exhibition, Motherhood, investigates the concept from different perspectives.

Mary Cassatt and Paula Modersohn-Becker

Two artists who stand out in their sensitive interpretation of the theme are American artist Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) and the German Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907). Ironically, they never portrayed themselves as mothers with children, although Modersohn-Becker is generally considered to be the first artist to execute a nude self-portrait as an expectant mother, her 1906 Self-portrait on the Sixth Wedding Anniversary.

Growing Love

However, complications after childbirth resulted in her death a few days after delivering her daughter; fate didn’t allow her to represent herself with her newborn.

Cassatt didn’t have children of her own; in spite of this, her portraits of mothers and children are among the genre’s most endearing. “I believe Mary Cassatt was a very moral artist and was not going to have children unless she was married. Such different times, yes, it is indeed ironic, however I believe you can feel the love of a mother even if the child is not your own,” Gialanze remarks.

New Sensations

This exhibition can be regarded as a further exploration on the theme by an artist who has experienced motherhood herself. “Often, motherhood is seen as an ideal. However, mothers are very human, with all that humanity encompasses. I lost my mother in 2015 and struggled with the loss. I wish to this day that she was still here. I have dedicated this exhibition to her,” she poignantly points out.

Perhaps one can draw parallels in Gialanze’s perspective with that of Cassatt, who was very eloquent in representing privileged women enjoying the luxury of their private lives while drinking tea, reading books or fussing over their young children.

Michelle Gialanze

The Maltese artist’s depictions see the mothers at times engrossed within the intimacy of their private worlds – a heavily pregnant one who is reading, while another is cradling her child while texting.

Unlike the American artist, Gialanze doesn’t give domestic context to her compositions – the focus is on the actual maternal condition sans any external interference in the form of fabric, ornate furniture or foliage. This reinforces the universality of the theme.

For the Maltese artist, unlike Cassatt and Modersohn-Becker, motherhood is not restricted to the context of the young of the family. “I looked at how children painterly interpret the roles of mothers and realised that, as a mother, I felt so differently to what they were painting,” the Maltese artist continues.

Playful

A mother does not cease to be one, even after her death. Maternity is forever. “Art and motherhood in my opinion transcend time. Mothers are sometimes seen in their roles but not as humans anymore, this is not something new, but I felt I wanted the spotlight to be on mothers here,” Gialanze affirms. “Cassatt was sometimes depicted as a feminist artist. This is not my case, I am artist, I paint what affects me, positively or negatively, and can only share these experiences.”

As an individual who spent several weeks fighting for one of my daughters to survive as she was born premature at 29 weeks, I therefore have my own opinion on life

She declares that her influences are not limited to ones originating from the artistic field, admitting that she also finds inspiration from literary sources. “A charcoal painting by Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) depicting a mother, tired and worn-out through looking after her children, was one of the inspirations. This is a sensation that has been felt forever. As mothers, we are allowed to get tired, frustrated and sometimes even angry,” Gialanze observes.

Provider

Madonna and Child and views of contemporary society

The exhibition Motherhood, while showing women in various stages of parenting, also refers to the Madonna and Child motif, a timeless staple in religious iconography. “I found it really interesting to see the role of Mary, the mother of God in the Bible, to look at it and see her as a person not only as a mother, her femineity, her being, her narrative. Here, I depict her within a community, as an individual, possibly not European,” the artist reflects.

In an age in which abortion is being regarded as a woman’s right that needs to be legalised and one that concurrently advocates for the rights of the unborn, such an exhibition could elicit discourse about the meaning of motherhood in contemporary times.

Care for me

Some sectors of society, such as the ecclesiastical one, sometimes still stereotype mothers to their biological roles. This deprives women of their dignity, their position as sentient, emancipated individuals.

“With regards to the contemporary discourse on abortion, I think that this is again a very personal issue, not one rule for all. As an individual who spent several weeks fighting for one of my daughters to survive as she was born premature at 29 weeks, I therefore have my own opinion on life,” Gialanze argues.

The artist stresses again that the exhibition is her own interpretation and research on motherhood, evoking Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood’s words: “What fabrications they are, mothers. Scarecrows, wax dolls for us to stick pins into, crude diagrams. We deny them an existence of their own, we make them up to suit ourselves – our own hungers, our own wishes, our own deficiencies.”

Tender Moment

“Mothers come in all ages, nationalities, abilities, etc… what mothers don’t get is a handbook on how to bring up their own individual children, they are not appliances which always work the same as another within the same model,” Gialanze says. “There are several wonderful books written but each child is different.”

The colour of purity and light

White predominates in most of the paintings in this collection, evoking light, innocence, purity, milk. The adult male component doesn’t seem to factor in and has been eliminated from the equation.

One might provocatively affirm that the Motherhood exhibition elicits a very pronounced and provocative feminist dimension, even in its elegiac tranquillity. The artist insists that it was not her intention to celebrate a model which leaves the father out of the role of parenthood.

Still a Child

“Indeed, in this exhibition, the adult male as a father is only seen through a pair of hands at conception,” Gialanze continues. “I just wanted to share my very personal viewpoint of motherhood. I focused for a moment in time on how mothers are perceived, through the various badges we have pinned on their chests, in this case the emotional, spiritual, and physical ones.”

She concludes: “What I have felt, been and appreciated as a mother I am sharing here, and I invite people to look at these paintings to see what emotions they evoke for them.”

Motherhood, hosted by the Malta Society of Arts, Palazzo de la Salle, Republic Street, Valletta and sponsored by Deloitte Foundation and Laferla Insurance, is open until January 27. There will be a debate about the narrative of motherhood on January 21 at 6pm at the venue. Please contact the artist on michelle.gialanze@gmail.com if you wish to reserve a space. COVID-19 restrictions apply.