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Female artists find recognition in a new documentaryQuick — name five women artists. OK, any lesbian worth her toaster oven knows Georgia O’Keeffe and, thanks to Salma Hayek and an acclaimed movie, we know Frida Kahlo.
I came up with Judy Chicago, because I saw her exhibit when it was on tour, and Henriette Ronner-Knip, whom I adore because she adores cats. (This one looks like the kitty of my heart, Freckles, who died a few years ago.)
Of course, we can’t forget Jodi Lerner. What? You mean The L Word isn’t real life? Dang. All right. Shirley Ann Thomson, an Oklahoma artist whose work I know because my family’s regular Sunday afternoon activity when I was little was going to the Gilcrease Museum to look at Western art. (I wore my holster with my church dress. Yet, my parents were shocked to learn that I’m a lesbian. But I digress.) Thomson was the first female Western artist I knew. My guess is that most of you can name five female artists fairly easily, too. But no one around here claims to be typical. Most Americans are hard-pressed to name even one woman artist — an untenable situation to Pamela Tanner Boll, director of the new documentary Who Does She Think She Is?
Boll introduces us to five women whose work challenges the assumption that the life of an artist must be a solitary one. Boll explains in an interview with Women & Hollywood: Even though I wrote stories and painted and had exhibits and readings — the work was always done in the cracks of family life. And I felt guilty, torn, never in the right place … so I set out to see how other women had handled this. The five artists Boll features in Who Does She Think She Is? are fascinating women with rich lives and remarkable talent. One of the most fascinating artists to me is Mayuma Oda, who was born in Japan after the Vietnam War, when girls were taught to be subservient. She was able to develop her interest in art by studying traditional Japanese fabric dying and learning to make colorful custom kimonos. Her goddess prints, such as “Mamala the Surfrider,” reflect the colors she used in her early training.
At the other end of the spectrum, background-wise at least, is Janis Wunderlich, a Mormon mother of five who sculpts dark, semi-gruesome figures while her children play in her studio. This one is called “Family Time.”
Who Does She Think She Is? reveals the not-so-latent misogyny in the art world, which is numerically dominated by women, despite their obscurity. The statistics in the film are disheartening but not surprising: 80 percent of students in art schools are women, but only 20 percent of working artists are female. Only 4 percent of the new shows at the Museum of Modern art in New York are by women. Only three of the 30 artists in ArtReview’s 2008 Power 100 are women. Perhaps the dilemma is summarized best in the film’s press release:
Hopefully, Who Does She Think She Is? is a step toward changing that. Can you name five female artists without Googling? What is your perception of women in the art world? What draws you to certain art and artists? Submitted by on October 23, 2008 - 12:00pm. |
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Excellent post!
It seems to me that the world is upside down. We can't name 5 women artists, or poets for that matter, but we can name dozens and dozens of celebrities. Don't get me wrong, I love celebrities, too, but why can't we have it all? Why can't the world celebrate, and reward financially, women who are artists and poets and dancers and writers, as well as the celebrities?
That said, I am so pleased that After-Ellen takes these less-than-celebrated women seriously, with posts like this one, as well as the wonderful book reviews and interviews of artistic women. Thank you!
www.SeekingSaraSummers.com
Okay, I'm an art geek
Off the top of my head:
Rachel Whiteread
Sophie Calle
Mona Hatoum
Tacita Dean
Louise Bourgeois
Cindy Sherman
Gillian Wearing
Jenny Holzer
Barbara Kruger
Maybe it's unfair because I'm a photographer but.....
Emily Yacir
Alessandra Sanguinetti
Kara Walker
Kiki Smith
Maya Lin
Catherine Opie (who is having a show at the Guggenheim currently - check it out if you're in NYC, it's great!)
And this itself is a pretty narrow definition of "artist" - aren't filmmakers also artists? This is another area with apalling numbers for women. But right away Sophia Coppola, Kimberly Peirce and Angelina Maccarone come to mind and the many other talented women who are profiled here. The problem as I see it is simply that despite more recognition then there used to be say, twenty years ago, at the heighest levels there isn't the same effort to show or sell work by female artists. Most female-produced work still sells for lower prices than the equivalent made by men and the art world has responded to this by curtailing investment in women. To some extent the "art world" is responding to the sexism of its constituency. But that is a fact in many, if not most, fields.
Don't forget Jane Champion.
Don't forget Jane Champion. And photographers Diane Arbus and Nan Goldin.
I feel like females artists are not as appreciated and most of their work (Sophia Coppola's for example) are deemed as "female" and "feminine" and thus, aren't as recoglized or considered as qualified as work produced by male artists.
Unfair advantage...
I'm an artist (and a critic of sorts) so I could name a lot of female artists without any trouble. Obviously in the higher echelons of the art world i.e, big auction houses and international museum survey shows, the men still dominate, but (in Britain at least) you get a good % representation in the smaller, more 'cutting edge' commerical galleries and in artist-run spaces.
These people are worth looking up:
Fiona Banner
Anna Barriball
Tara Donovan
Sue Tompkins
Clara Ursitti
Diann Bauer
Kristine Roepstorff
Hillary Harkness - very appropriate for this forum: check her work out it's good fun!
I'm enjoying the site's occasional arts coverage a lot - please keep doing it!
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http://www.fiona-shaw.org.uk
(nothing to do with the actress)
I too have an unfair
I too have an unfair advantage. As an artist and art teacher I'm not about to start making lists. But here's one lesbians should know. Meret Oppenheim. This is her metaphor for lesbian sex:
I'm just an art lover, with no formal training, but
I am a big fan of Victorian artists, particularly the Pre-Raphaelites. Here are a few of my favorites:
Elizabeth Siddal, painter and wife of Dante Gabriel Rosetti;
Evelyn De Morgan, painter
May Morris, artisan and embroiderer, daughter of Jane and William Morris
Marie Spartali Stillman, painter and cousin of Maria Zambaco (Sir Edward Burne-Jones’ muse)
Anna Lee Merritt, painter
Isabel Gloag, painter
And although she’s a poet, I have to include Christina Rosetti in the list simply because so many of her poems were the source of inspiration for the Pre-Raphaelites’ paintings.