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Talks & Events Information

Once you have made a booking, you will receive a notification by email with information about your event. If you have general queries about attending Talks at IMMA please see our Frequently Asked Questions page below.


To attend using zoom platform, register here

IMMA invites you to join Annie Freud and Amah-Rose Abrams for an online conversation that offers a close reading of portraits by important artists of their mothers from the 16th century to the present day.

Starting with a selection of paintings of the Madonna and Child from the Renaissance period, the talk will focus on portraits by Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt, Sofonisba Anguissola, Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Camille. Corot, Paul Cezanne, Edvard Munch, Salvador Dali, Helene Schjerfbeck, Alice Neel, Helene Dumas, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby.

Who were these mothers? What kinds of lives did they lead? What influence did they have on their artist sons and daughters? What do these pictures tell us about the historical, familial and cultural conditions in which they were painted? How does each portrait lead us to surmise about the artist’s intentions and what did he or she chose to reveal about the relationship between artist and sitter? How do these portraits sit within the oeuvre of each painter? How do they enlarge our awareness of our cultural heritage? How do they reflect the emergence of new ideas about hierarchy and intimacy within families.

Above all this conversation focusses on the significance for an artist in making a portrait of their mother and the sense of mutual endeavor between the two.

The Artist’s Mother project is inspired by the series of portrait by Lucian Freud of his mother Lucie Freud. Before the project draws to a close on 8 Aug 2021, join us for a moment for pause and reflection.

Online Details: You can attend by registering in advance to receive a zoom link directly to your inbox.


About Speakers

Annie Freud is a poet, translator, teacher, editor, and painter. Her first collection The Best Man That Ever Was (Picador 2007) received a Poetry Book Society recommendation and was awarded the Dimplex Prize for New Writing. The Mirabelles (Picador 2010), was a Poetry Book Society Choice and was short-listed for the TS Eliot Prize. Her third collection was The Remains (Picador 2015) and also received an award from the Poetry Book Society.. Hiddensee, published in January 2021, is her fourth collection.  Annie Freud has been named by the Poetry Book Society as one of the Next Generation Poets 2014. She is renowned for her live performances.

Amah-Rose Abrams is an art writer and journalist, she is published regularly and recently has written for The New York Times, The Art Newspaper, artnet News, Artsy, Wallpaper*,Sotheby’s and more. She has been reporting on the art world all over Europe for over a decade and while her career is now focused on contemporary art she also writes on music, film, culture and the points where art and life meet. Amah-Rose also co-hosts a monthly radio programme on Soho Radio with a focus on books, poetry and the arts.


About Exhibition

The Artist’s Mother is the latest project in a series of responses as part of the IMMA Collection: Freud Project 2016-2021. Inspired by Lucian Freud’s paintings of his mother, Lucie, this is the first presentation which interweaves digital and physical elements. Central to the project is the work of artist Chantal Joffe who has portrayed her mother, Daryll, in an exceptional series of paintings and pastels. See more details here