Mary Cassatt,
The Child s Bath (1893). Robert A. Waller Fund. Courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago.
When Mother’s Day was proposed as a holiday in 1913, American-French artist Mary Cassatt was not particularly keen on the idea. “As a staunch supporter of women’s suffrage, she thought granting women the right to vote was a far more pressing issue than a single day celebrating mother,” explained Kimberly A. Jones, curator of the National Gallery’s 2014 exhibition “Degas/Cassatt.”
The lack of enthusiasm might come as a surprise. Cassatt and motherhood are nearly synonymous in the public imagination in her painted world babies and young children tenderly cling to their mothers, their tangles of hands and limbs becoming like one entity.
A NEW exhibition at York Art Gallery, featuring Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, will go on display as part of the Spotlight Series to celebrate the reopening of the venue. The exhibit, titled Pictures of the Floating World: Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints’, will feature prints by prominent Ukiyo-e artists and work influenced by Japanese art. Jenny Alexander, associate collections curator at York Art Gallery, said: Visitors will see delicate prints depicting scenes celebrating everyday life, through themes such as landscape and travel, actors and courtesans and folk tales. Some of these works have not been displayed in over 15 years, so we are thrilled that many visitors will be able to enjoy them for the first time.