![Rita Duffy - Belfast Mothers [1984]](http://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8215/29216963955_6517a006e9_b.jpg)
Of this painting, Duffy (born 1959) comments how it is a distillation of several memories and her experience of school through the 1970s on the Falls Road. The corrugated fence is a police barricade, which bisected Violet Street and cast an ominous shadow over the houses. It was a time of continuous unrest and violent turmoil, and in the present work the matriarchs hold the children with large protective arms. It is these women who endure and navigate their way through the hardships. In the corner of the window, a model flamenco dancer evokes dreams of a foreign holiday.
As an intensely autobiographical artist, Duffy has made a vital contribution to the role and challenges of women living in this period, reflecting many of her own experiences and speaking of wider truths. It is a significant early work, made the same year as her MA at the University of Ulster, and emphatically reveals the major contribution her career would make to contemporary Irish art and her place as one of its leading figurative painters.
[Sotheby’s, London - Oil on panel, 67.5 x 56.5 cm]