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March 5, 2008 9:49 am
Everyone has a mother, but not every son or daughter celebrates Mother’s Day the same way. Few kids, for example, are as dedicated as the sailor who has “Mom” inked into his arm. In this hardcore Mother’s Day spirit comes “Mothers,” a cyclical group show curated by Jasper Joffe, Emma Ridgway, Harry Pye, and Mat Humphrey. “Mothers,” which debuted in the East End of London four years ago and will be shown in South London in 2012 and then again in 2016 in North London, is now appearing at Sartorial Contemporary Art (in the U.K., Mothering Sunday is always three weeks before Easter). As its common premise, the show’s curators provided 100 artists with a same-sized canvas on which to represent their mothers. With work by Dinos Chapman, George Shaw, Chantal Joffe, David Shrigley, and Grayson Perry on display, the show has caused many a cynical viewer to tear up. “Each time an artist gave me their finished painting, I felt a buzz as though I was a child unwrapping a Christmas present,” said Pye. And the artists clearly felt the same tenderness toward the project. “For me, the notion of painting my mother was very difficult, and also extremely rewarding,” explained the British collage artist Mat Humphrey. “It forced me to sit down and think harder and more specifically about her than at any other time in my life. It also made me look harder at her face than perhaps I had before. It doesn’t take a psychologist to figure out why.” Nor does it take one to see that this is a show that not only a mother can love.
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