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Self portrait as a mother

Self portrait as a mother

Self portrait as a mother

For a long time, young female artists were told that artistry and motherhood were incompatible. Tanja Ritterbex’s own life has always formed the basis for her art, though, and motherhood too. Her paintings are bursts of colour and patterns, playful and cheerful, like this mother with a green face, a moustache and enormous hands. Ritterbex plays with our expectations of what a mother should look like. [text 2026]
Title
Self portrait as a mother
Dating
2022
Object type
schilderij
Object number
35804

Tanja Ritterbex

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Materials
doek, acryl
Technique
acrylverf op doek
Dimensions
  • hoogte 85 cm
  • breedte 65 cm
Acquisition
aankoop met steun van het Mondriaan Fonds (2023)
Associated subjects
Inscriptions and marks
:
Rights
Collectie Centraal Museum Utrecht / foto Adriaan van Dam
Documentation
Moederfiguren, Domeniek Ruyters, Heske ten Cate, Laurie Cluitmans, (Metropolis M, Aflevering: 1, feb/mar 2025), pp. 48-51
Iedereen kan moederen, door Sarah van Binsbergen, (De Volkskrant, 17 mei 2025), 02 - 04 (katern Zondag)
De kunst van het moederschap, Mirjam Westen, (De witte raaf, Jaargang: 40, Aflevering: 237, sep-okt 2025), p. 13-14
Mothering myths : an abc of art, birth and care, Laurie Cluitmans & Heske ten Cate (eds) ; with contr. by Rosemarie Buikema ...[et al.], Valiz (Amsterdam, 2025) Centraal Museum (Utrecht, 2025) Nest (The Hague, 2025), 312 p.