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Women & Art

    omen and art have not always gone hand–in-hand. Women at one time were not allowed to show their art works in the French salons and were not permitted in the academies of art. Before you decided not to read this editorial, I should inform that I am in no way a feminist, but I do support women rights. I am taking upon myself for those you do not understand how women are known as painters today and were known as "servants of men", what I have in mind is wives and housemaids. 

Again, I am not a feminist. Even in the present, solo shows of women are still quite small compared to that of solo shows of men artists. I thought that this is a quintessential moment to raise the topic of women and art. But, before I go into this matter I just want to add an additional comment to my previous art review of "Rock My Religion" by Dan Graham. There is going to be an exhibition from January 23 to May 29,2000 on the impact of Judeo-Christian Religion on art at the Millennium in the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut. " This is not your ordinary art exhibition, this is FAITH" See the ad in this months Art news Magazine.

A women artist, for some people might not know, was not a "profession" or accepted role of a female in the early 15^th Century. Now with the turning of the millennium, this is the pivotal moment to peep back into history and see how the women’s movement in art was first established.

Art was a man’s profession. When one thinks about great painters, the first person that comes to mind are the great painters of the High Renaissance: Leonardo, Raphael and Michangelo. (No not the turtles.) But, those the population look back and commemorate the great painters, Judith Leyster, Artemisia Gentileschi, Elisabeth-Louise Vigee-Lebrun and Angelica Kauffmann who was the "first woman painter to challenge the masculine monopoly of history painting in the Academicians." (Women, Art, and Society, by Whitney Chadwick) Women who did seek art out and painted it were usually confined to painting still life and portraits. Women were not allowed to study the naked figure because it was thought to believe that women looking at the naked male body would initiate sexual excitement and sensation.

Therefore, what else could women paint but still life and portraits that were in the bottom of the hierarchical chain of subject matter. Women, if they were allowed in the Academies, could not exhibit their works in the salons or compete for awards or contest. They had to be satisfied with the title of being a member of the elite academies. And of course, these academies had a quota of how many women artist they were allowed to accept. This number was very small, around four per year.

The paintings of these 15^th to 16^th century artists were superbly rendered and many were thought to be painted by a man. For instance, some of Judith Leyster’s paintings were thought to be Frans Hal’s works. Also, many art dealers would change the signatures of the artist to be from a famous male painter. This past century has seen many attributions of paintings going to women artists.

So, you might be speculating why I am giving an art history lesson about women artist in the 15^th century. The fact is, not that much has changed in the equality of the sexes towards the world of art. This world embodies the galleries, survey classes of art history, exhibitions-mainly solo ones. The fact of the matter is, that I was struck dumb founded when I was going through Art news magazine and artnet.com and other sources, that I could truthfully say that about 80% of the exhibitions and auctions are that of male painters! I am incredibly fortuitous to have the opportunity to study art history and have a class that concerns art and women and to have drawing lessons where I can study the naked human figure. Society has changed a profusively since the 1500s, and I believe that society will keep on changing and women and art will not be a class in a predominate curriculum of masculine painters. Therefore, it is the job of the people to go out and support the solo art shows of female artists. Some to think about are: Julia Jacquette at the MOMA. Her paintings consist of the Oldenburg notion of food, but with a romantic twist and viewer participation, where the viewer comes and enjoys the food and becomes a pivotal part of the work by producing emotion and fabricating their own images;

and the Postmedia exhibition of Conceptual Photography in the Guggenheim Museum Collection. This show commences February 18 to May 7,2000 and consists of two female artists, Jan Dibbets and Ana Mendieta, that have taken photographs of postwar America. Richard Smithson and Vito Acconci are also part of this exhibition, who are excellent artists and it is interesting that these two females are among these privileged few artists to be exhibited at the Guggenheim; and if you are in Venice, Italy by some chance, go check out Amazons of the Avante-Garde. This show is of Russian female artists who developed and created new grounds for the fine and applied arts. This show is coming to New York in June 21 and staying until October 1,2000. Liubov Popova is a remarkable artist that has gained much success through out the decades.

Enough said, please go out and enjoy and partake in these shows of female artist. With the brief introduction that I wrote in the first paragraphs, the value of these artist could be more heightened with the knowledge that you now have. So, go out and enjoy the shows!

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