Hettie Judah Talk

Talk with writer and art critic Hettie Judah on her new book Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood

Please join us at Porthmeor Studios on Friday 19th July to hear writer and art critic Hettie Judah speak about her new book Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood.

Exploring motherhood through the work of artists from prehistory to the present day, Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood addresses the abiding mother-shaped hole in art history.

Renowned author and curator Hettie Judah examines how shifting ideals of motherhood have been constructed and promoted through visual culture. Moving into the 20th and 21st centuries, it also looks at how women artists – among them Barbara Hepworth, Jenny Saville, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Betye Saar, Suzanne Valadon, Louise Bourgeois, Carrie Mae Weems – have worked to subvert these ideals and reclaim the narrative. Women have long been told that they cannot be both an artist and a mother: here the artist mother is instead addressed as an important cultural paradigm. Acts of Creation explores lived experience of motherhood – and of not becoming a mother – offering a complex account that engages with ongoing concerns around gender, caregiving and reproductive rights.

Hettie Judah is a writer and art critic, contributing regularly to the Guardian, Apollo, Frieze and the Times Literary Supplement among many other publications. She has lectured widely on art and motherhood, and in 2022 co-founded the Art Working Parents Alliance. Recent books include Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones (2022) and How Not To Exclude Artist Mothers (and other parents) (2022).

Tickets: £5 plus booking fees (please note booking fees are not refundable)
Timings: 6pm – 7.15pm
Location: Porthmeor Studios, Back Road West, St. Ives TR26 1NG
Enquiries: [email protected]

This event has been made possible by the generous support of the Porthmeor Fund

Please contact [email protected] prior to the event if you have questions regarding access or for more information before you attend the event.