Hey everyone! It’s my time to shine and by that, I mean complain heavily about female representation in art. It’s Women’s History Month so let’s strap in and get to it!
We can all recognize the big-name female artists like Mary Cassatt, Georgia O’Keefe, Frida Kahlo etc., but when it comes down to it, why is it we can remember the names of dozens of male artists but not female? Why is it so hard to remember women artists like Elsa Hildegard Baroness von Freytag-Loringhoven without stuttering over her name?
I’ll tell you why! Museums just don’t have much in the way of female artists. This is nothing new and has been an issue for a very long time. For example, between 2008 and 2018 only 11 percent of acquisitions among 26 prominent museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Contemporary art Chicago, were by female artists. These statistics are easy to find, unsurprisingly many others also have a problem with this and despite the art world making claims that they are being more inclusive, studies have shown otherwise. The percentage is still so low even though more than half of the United States population consists of women. Even more upsetting, to me at least, is museums will sell a single painting by a male artist to afford several pieces created by women. Although museums do need funding to make new acquisitions, it is sometimes frustrating to think that a single painting by a man is worth multiples of one done by a woman.
Shout out to Travis for having a more lighthearted post for Women’s History Month, but someone needs to be the bitter one! This isn’t to say that individual museums aren’t strengthening their collection of female artists, as individual museums will have their own percentages of male to female artists, but this is just to look at the broader spectrum.
Even while going through college and studying art there was clear favor when it came to male artists. Marcel Duchamp, one of the greatest Dada artists known for his controversial work “Fountain” may not have even been made by him. In fact, “Fountain” may have actually been created by Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, but alas it is still attributed to our boy Duchamp. So next time you see a work by a woman, consider giving it more attention and consideration!
