As an artist, I feel like I am almost always made aware of my otherness, racially and in terms of gender. It’s not exactly a surprise that art is both very deeply gendered and racialized, but it is something that I have become increasingly aware of over time. I recognize that my race and gender often precede my being understood as an Artist, which has complicated my relationship to my identity and politics in art related contexts. How can I navigate being a self identified woman artist and making art occasionally about my gendered and racial experiences without being excluded from shows or essentialized as another stereotype of a woman artist (and the ways in which women artists are described: sensitive, delicate, feminine). What does it mean to be a woman artist? How will I experience life as a woman artist? I think about this often.
The art world as a simultaneous racial and gendered space is, first and foremost, centered around white manhood. To be considered an “other” in this space is to exist outside of the boundaries of the white male artist. Notoriously, Western art history has been characterized as overwhelmingly white and male dominated. Linda Nochlin’s “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” is considered a significant work in the early development of the fields of feminist art theory and art criticism, and frequently touches upon the role of white malehood in art, and the exclusion of women artists from the art world.
In particular, the idea of the nude and its relationship to the institutional discrimination of women artists, as a cornerstone of Nochlin’s argument, alludes to male domination and female subordination in art. It is worth noting, though, that the ways in which Nochlin presents the art historical trajectory of the glorified male artist and shunned female artist is very cis-normative and white. Historically, fine art training relied upon a mastering of tradition and technique: among these, the nude. To truly be considered a “great” artist, one must be able to render human form with a fine, highly skilled hand. But, not everyone could access the nude. Studies of the nude figure in traditional art training contexts established and maintained a subject-object dichotomy between the female nude as an object and the male observer as the subject. This dehumanization of women as a result of objectification has only further cemented the gendered artist roles. A type of hegemonic masculinity has claimed control over the body of women, and rejected any deviant behavior that contradicted the gendered roles of the cisnormative femininity/masculinity binary. A woman subverting the subject/object dichotomy, and elevating herself above that of object, would have been a challenge to the male role and unacceptable. Physically and structurally denied access to higher art space, Nochlin argues that that is one reason as to why there have been no great women artists.
Gender and racial bias in the arts community is not just an issue of the deep past, however. One example of a more recent campaign in the name of equality in the art world is that of the Guerilla Girls, a group of anonymous feminist artist activists, that has been vocal about issues of sexism and racism in high art contexts since 1985. Their provocative campaigns target galleries and art collectors that fail to adequately represent and support women artists and artists of color. A brief segment on NPR’s Morning Edition (which came out January 24, 2020. 2020!) echoed the same claims as Guerrilla Girls: that art by women is undervalued in comparison to men’s art, and is excluded by major museums and galleries. Why is gender inequality a persisting problem in the art world? There has been an institutional barrier against women and artists of color for centuries, and in the most exclusive art environments of the high art world, there is still significant room for improvement. Women and minority artists should not be considered “token artists” or reserved for themed shows. Galleries, even as commercial institutions, should be made aware of the ways in which they are contributing to a system of art and economic power framed around male artists. Representation needs to improve in both big name museums and galleries. Women’s art sells for less at auctions if it makes it there at all, and often times the “big names” include a measly handful of the same 5 (dead) women in rotation.
It can be disheartening as a women artist to be made aware of continued bias and discrimination in the art world, but I do believe that there is hope both on a local and global scale. Rice seems to do a pretty good job at challenging the male-dominated art world trope, which is refreshing. A majority of the Studio Art faculty are women identifying and to my knowledge, a majority of the Studio Art majors in my year are women identifying. However, there is always room to improve.
Sources:
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/24/799163534/gender-bias-reveals-consequences-for-female-artists
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/library/Nochlin-Linda_Why-Have-There-Been-No-Great-Women-Artists.pdf
https://frieze.com/article/hannah-wilke-what-it-means-be-woman-artist
https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/in_depth/what-is-masculinity-in-art-and-do-we-have-to-care-56336
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guerrilla-girls-guerrilla-girls-definition-of-hypocrite-p78817
February 11, 2020 at 2:15 am
But, a counterpoint to my last statement: Is representation merely the bar to pass? How can we critically engage with institutional discrimination against people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community after the role of the white woman has been accounted for in these contexts? Including white women as a challenge to the status quo in the art sphere is simply not enough.