The aim of this essay is to sketch the evolution of Polish critical art on womanhood in general and motherhood in particular. The overall argument is that both before and after 1989 – marking the major point of accelerating socio-political transformation and social change in Poland - critical women artists were exceptionally outspoken about the tensions related to motherhood. They have done so while depicting mothers’ complex subjectivity as well as mothering practices through and within art practices. The focus of this paper is, specifically, on three generations of Polish women-artists along with looking in-depth at how their critical-artistic discourse, both before and after 1989, has constructed various ideas, visions and perceptions of motherhood, both from the women-centred and the wider social perspective.