Most people around the US have had the opportunity to visit an art museum at least once. Most of the pieces they saw were probably made by male artists. A data analysis showed that 85% of art pieces in the top 18 museums around the country were made by males (Topaz et al. 9). This issue is not new. If we look back in time and try to find women artists exhibiting in Paris between 1850 and 1900, the options were limited. In the essay “Into the light: Women artists, 1850-1900,” written by Laurence Madeline, she discusses how women in that period were dismissed and considered inferior by male artists (5). Many female artists have become their own advocates to change this low representation, but we still are asking, why is female representation still low in museums?
In an article published in Smithsonian Magazine (2019), the art and science journalist Meilan Solly looked at how museums are lagging in the acquisition of works made by female artists. New data showed that women artists comprised “11 percent of acquisitions and 14 percent of exhibitions at 26 major American museums between 2008 and 2018.” Chad M. Topaz researched the diversity of artists in major U.S. museums (2019). The author analyzed the demographic diversity of 18 museums around the country. The data showed that artists “identifiable across all museums consist of 10.8 percent women.” (9). Both studies agreed on the lack of female-created art in museums.
The art market has also been unfair to women artists. The Cuban-American painter Carmen Herrera needed to wait until she was 89 years old to sell her first art piece. The now 106-year-old artist was surrounded by famous artists such as Picasso and Matisse, but because she was a woman, and the art world was controlled by men, her success came later in life. (Hattenstone, 2016). Taylor Whitten Brown (2019) wrote that a gap in the art world still exists and is caused by biases against women’s art, resulting in pieces made by women selling for lower prices. In “Gendered Prices,” the economist and scholar Renée Adams agreed with Whitten Brown that female art prices are below those of men’s art pieces. Adams wrote, “Relative to the average price for paintings by men, the discount for paintings by women is 42.1%.” (15) (Cabello, 2021)
Culture is an important factor for women to have success in the art sphere. It would require a more egalitarian cultural environment to have more representation of female artists in museums. To be sure, the art historian and cultural analyst, Griselda Pollock stated that women have been recognized “and being acknowledged for, art-making throughout the centuries and cultures, culminating in their massive presence…” (35) Nevertheless, the online publication Artnet shared new data that showed that between 2008 and 2018 the total acquisitions made by 26 American museums was 260,470 pieces, while acquisitions of work by women came to only 29,247. (Artnet, 2019) The New York Times published that “only 11 percent of art acquired by the country’s top museums for their permanent collections was by women.” (New York Times, 2019) Barron’s online magazine published that “only 14% of exhibitions at these same institutions were by solo female artists or groups of female artists.” (2019)
For Carmen Herrera the gendered price can be attributed to her late success, but she was not the only artist that have been under those circumstances. The person considered to be the first western abstract painter, the Swede Hilma af Klint, requested before dying that her body of work not be shown for at least another 20 years (Bashkoff, 2018). She knew that society was not ready for her. The United States was finally able to get to know her in 2018 at her first solo show in the country. “Paintings for the Future” became the museum’s most-visited solo exhibition of all time. (Solly, 2019)
The issue of low representation of female artists is far from closing the gender gap in the art world. As data have shown, art museums in the US still have a low percentage of pieces made by women, even when the art market continues to sell art by females discounted at 42.1% less than works by men. As Carmen Herrera once said, everything is controlled by men, even art, and because everything is controlled by men, female art representation will continue to be low. In 2016, of the 13 US museums with budgets over $45 million that responded to a survey, just one had a woman director. (Treviño, 2017)
Hilma af Klint’s exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim opened a door to expand solo or group exhibitions by women. Visitors to museums need to have the opportunity to experience female voices. Women’s voices are important and current. Women artists need to be introduced to new generations because the culture is screaming for a change, to stop the gender gap and to create opportunities for new female artists. Society is ready. Hilma af Klint was right. Her paintings needed to wait for a change in society.
Works Cited
Madeline, Laurence, Into the Light: Women Artist,1850-1900. Women Artists in Paris, 1850-
1900. American Federation of Arts, 2017.
Solly, Meilan. “Study Shows U.S. Museums Still Lag When It Comes to Acquiring Works by Women Artists.” Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Sept. 2019, www.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/survey-us-museums-reveals-few-gains-female-artists-past-decade-180973190/.
Topaz, Chad M., et al. “Diversity of Artists in Major U.S. Museums.” PloS One, vol. 14, no. 3, Public Library of Science, 2019, pp. e0212852–e0212852, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0212852.
Whitten Brown, Taylor. “Why Is Work by Female Artists Still Valued Less Than Work by Male Artists?” Artsy, 8 Mar. 2019, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-work-female-artistsvalued-work-male-artists.
La lengua de Chile
Ese momento lo había vivido siempre en un día templado
acantilados, acabándose la sangre azul
en sus manos de tintas.
Así absorbió todos los dogmas
acumulando la barbarie de la inteligencia
en su cabeza muerta.
Se precisaba una realidad aparte,
una constatación de la verosimilitud del verbo ver
ideas no desarraigadas a lo verdadero,
y un haz de luz blanca nos informa que el sentido de la seducción
ha desaparecido.
No hay más sexualidad,
hábleme del verso libre
y al hablar de ello
parlo de la lengua de Chile.
He intruseamos para alzarnos sobre el sol
esperando la hiperestesia de la limpieza declarada
en el ser- ver.
Doy un grito sin reposo
Esperando la coronación de la palabra sagrada.
Blanco / Negro
Hoy tengo necesidad de escribir
rayar un papel blanco incontrolable a mi mano
inconmensurable a mi devenir humano
destino cínico
sino del aburrimiento de mi locura.
Intervalos vitae
Dicen que al avanzar
ya se hace mal lo anterior
como si fuese un formulario completado
o un transcurso de resiliencias vitales
o adormecimientos energéticos
Es mucho mejor estar en el noema
que en la reproducción muerta de lo que se es
o en un álbum viejo como la madera
o como la memoria
oxidándose del aire para fortificar
ese eso es o es esto.