WHAT? The Mother & The Weaver - Art from the Ursula Hauser Collection

WHERE? The Foundling Museum, 40 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AZ 

WHEN? Now until 18th February, 2024 

WHY GO?  To cherish that maternal bond.  Motherhood is at the heart of this emotional exhibition in the one and only Foundling Museum.

From the visionary private collection of art philanthropist Ursula Hauser (founder of Hauser & Wirth), the exhibition champions women artists and motherhood.

Central to this theme are several artworks by the controversial Louise Bourgeois whose ‘spiders’ weave a symbolic web of motherhood recognised the world over.

It’s a unique opportunity to see Bourgeois’s work plus exhibits from sixteen other contemporary artists from the celebrated Hauser collection distributed thematically throughout the gallery and stately museum rooms. 

The connecting theme from Rita Ackermann's, Mama, I Love You (2010) to Luchita Hurtado’s Birth, 2019, relates to mothers, babies, love and loss and interacts with existing museum artefacts. 

As ever the most moving exhibits are the billets from real mothers who were obliged to abandon their babies, with, ‘Billet for child Number 9713’, a poignant reminder of the wonderful work this museum has undertaken over the years.

IN THE KNOW 

Curated by Hauser & Wirth's Senior Director (Curator-at-Large) Tanya Barson, who named the exhibition after Louise Bourgeois who wrote,"The Spider is an ode to my mother.  She was my best friend.  Like a spider, my mother was a weaver".  It aptly references weaving the complexities of motherhood throughout the artworks.