Where we are: Female Artists Representation in the Art world.

I mentioned in my last post the origin story of Marilyn Loden’s famous phrase “glass ceiling” is one of the inspirations for this blog. As a female artist I have a personal stake in this theory and perspective it provides into the inequality women artists have and still face in the art world. We still need to push up through the glass canvas.

Washington D.C. is the home of the National Museum for Women in the Arts. It’s a fabulous museum that honors, exhibits, and promotes female artists. I love their monthly newsletter; it is full of facts on gender inequality within art and details of upcoming shows around the world featuring female artists.   

The NMWA website is jam packed with information, shareable quotes, and graphics. They actively encourage sharing of data to help educate on the disparity of gender in art past and present.  This organization compiles data from other art sources that are based in education, leadership, demographics, and galleries.

“The museum addresses the gender imbalance in the presentation of art by bringing to light important women artists of the past while promoting great women artists working today.” NMWA website

So, here we go. Let’s unpack some data.

A 2018 study by NMWA revealed 85% of the art displayed on walls in museums was by male artists, and 87% of that art was by white artists. When I ask friends and strangers who their favorite artists are they usually mention male artists and the same three men feature often: Van Gogh, Monet, and Picasso.  Don’t get me wrong Picasso is one of my favorites too, but there is value and intention for me to mention my female counterparts first.

Can you name five female artists? <X> from NWMA asked that question in <Y>

Here are a few of my favorites:

• Friday Kahlo
• Ema Shin
• Georgia O’Keefe
• Annie Albers
• Artemisia Gentileschi
• Amy Sherald
• Kara Walker

Based on the articles and sources collected on the NMWA there is inequality in all facets of the art world for women.  Below is more data on the challenges women currently face in the art scene. The information listed is from 2017 to present.  Unfortunately, the needle hasn’t moved much in the last ten years.

This graph blows my mind and makes me feel sad because it tells me that not much at all has changed in hundreds of years. It also drives me to talk about it, write it, and create more art. 

Chew on this data:

• Female artists make seventy-four cents to the male’s dollar; this drops to sixty-six cents when women reach their fifties
• There has never been a female director at any of three most popular museums “the British Museum (est. 1753), the Louvre (est. 1793), and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (est. 1870)”.
• Art sales totaled 196 billion dollars in 2019, and female sales made up 2% of that; need a calculator? that’s 4 million. Female Artist’s Represent
• Women are under-represented at Art Basel fairs, making up less than a quarter of exhibitors. Art Basel is the biggest and most popular series of art fairs in the world, taking place in Miami, Hong Kong, and Basel. 
• The ArtReview “100 most influential artists” list in 2018 had 40% women on the list an increase from 38% and 32% in previous years. I will take that sustained growth! However it will take another 8 years before we get to 50%. 

For me these data points are encouraging because the when we compare the situation with the nineties or even farther back to hundreds of years ago there was even greater inequality. There used to be a time when females wouldn’t even have been able to create art or exhibit publicly. So we have come a long way. On the other hand, it is also disheartening that there have not been any female directors of our most loved museums and that while women receive more degrees in art design and curation, the numbers show we still pushing against the glass canvas, unable to reach curation, design, or director level positions. 

“Women make up a majority of professional art museum staff; despite recent gains, they remain underrepresented in leadership positions.” NMWA website

Knowing more information encourages conversations and awareness of the current inequality and what work women before us and are currently doing to reach the upper echelons of the art world.

Things you can do to help:

1. Learn about one female artist this year! Find out as much as you can about her and then talk about it with the people you love or at the parties you attend.  Instead of small talk, talk about something that is impactful.  
2. Visit local galleries and art exhibits. Find out what women are working in your city and then support them. I mentioned a few examples in my last post in my home town of Raleigh.
3. Use the hashtag #5womenartists & #nmwa on social media

I hope these petit four sized explanations will get some conversations started & that will be stepping stones to more awareness of the importance of gender equality in art.    

Until next time on @glasscanvas!

X(twitter) – heartmailx by Melissa Evers

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See you in a few weeks- M.E.