Log

My Personal Interest Project topic was chosen with my micro world in mind, due to my interest in art as well as being a Visual Art student. Through studying gender roles during my Visual Art course and exploring social exclusion in Society and Culture, it compelled me to want to learn more about the representation of women within the art world. As a socially aware individual with an interest in art, I felt the need to explore these inequalities to see if they still exist and how this may impact on other young artists.

The research methods that I chose were interview, statistical analysis and content analysis, which would provide me qualitative results, as well as quantitative by being able to collect data and statistics. Originally, I planned on conducting a focus group discussion, however as my project progressed, I decided on content analysis as it allowed me to observe a variety of sources and immerse myself in the art world. By choosing an interview I was able to gain insightful knowledge from four females who were either art curators or historians and one male who is an art historian. This gave me qualitative results as I was able to receive in-depth answers from numerous people and allowed and exploration of my cross-cultural by interviewing both genders and gaining their perspectives on this. However, there were some limitations such as by completing my interviews through e-mail, I was not able to ask any follow up questions for answers to be further elaborated. Additionally I only had one interview with a male and four with females, which may cause more perspectives from females and thus, a gender bias. By conducting interviews it supported my secondary research on the representation of women and by interviewing art historians it allowed me to have more research from people who have relevant and experienced knowledge on the topic.

My second research method was statistical analysis. I chose this as it gave me quantitative data on art galleries and artists. I completed this by obtaining statistics from Guerrilla Girls, Gallery Tally and Countess. Additionally, I tallied the amount of male and female artists and their artworks displayed in art galleries. A disadvantage of this research method was that it was a lengthy process. The benefit of this is that it allowed me to observe any trends concerning the representation of gender within art galleries and provided relevant statistics.

Furthermore, content analysis was my third research method, which provided qualitative results, as I was able to observe the gender roles in the art world throughout history. I focused on traditional western art from pre-1900s to observe continuity and change from traditional art to the art present in contemporary society. This allowed me to further investigate my cross-cultural of gender by analysing how males and females are portrayed differently in artworks on exhibition. Additionally, during my research I noticed some information that contradicted my hypothesis, which highlighted how society is changing.

The limitations and challenges that I faced while writing my project was time management as well as finishing my primary research being a lengthy and challenging task to be able to effectively finish. Furthermore, throughout my research process I have learnt and found valuable information through my secondary and primary research, which supported my hypothesis of women being underrepresented within the art world. This allowed me to effectively synthesise my findings and develop my own skills through my primary research by compiling all my results and being able to analyse the information.

Introduction

The topic I have chosen is women in art and the inequalities that they face within the art world. I came up with my topic due to there mostly being a focus on male artists throughout history and because women are often seen as being underappreciated and underrepresented even though they work just as hard as male artists. Additionally, I also have an interest in art and I am currently studying Visual Arts as one of my subjects for my HSC.

The hypothesis that I will be aiming to prove is; Female artists continue to be underrepresented and excluded from the art world as a result of their gender. In my research I aim to find out how the roles of women have changed throughout time, to explore the inequalities of gender in the art world and to find out why female artists are underrepresented. As well, this project aims to uncover how history has impacted on the representations of women and has changed in today’s contemporary society, whilst also exploring the gender stereotypes of women in the art world.

My first research method was an interview. I chose an interview as it allowed me to obtain in-depth, qualitative information from my interviewees, which I conducted by emailing several art curators and historians. My interviews however had to be conducted via e-mail, as it was more convenient for my interviewees. This allowed me to be able to conduct more interviews with different persons to allow for broader perspectives. I was able to interview five people from Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Griffith University, University of Sydney and University of Warwick. For my second research method, statistical analysis was utilised to obtain data. This involved tallying the amount of male and female artists and their artworks, which were being displayed in art galleries. I tallied four different art galleries, The Art Gallery of NSW, Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), SOHO Galleries and Melbourne Art Rooms Gallery (MARS), which was a lengthy process due to the amount of artworks being displayed. Consequently, I decided to focus on the exhibitions that were open to the general public. Additionally, I researched statistics from the Guerrilla Girls, Gallery Tally and Countess to form my statistical analysis. Lastly, for my final research method I conducted a content analysis by interpreting artworks two artworks, Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party” and Ron Mueck’s “Preganat woman 2002” by analysing the subjects of the artworks and how the females and males differ.

To further investigate this topic of women in art, I conducted a cross-cultural comparison exploring the differences between male and female representations and perspectives. This was achieved by interviewing males and females, including artwork from both genders and secondary research of how males and females are represented and treated differently within the art world. This allowed my research to be less bias, as I was able to have a male perspective, one different from the realm of my own experiences. Continuity and change will be explored by how the roles of women in art have either changed or remained the same over time with the change from more traditional to contemporary art in today’s modernised society.

In summary, by investigating the exclusion of women within today’s modern art world and by exploring the inequalities, this project has enhanced my investigate skills through my primary and secondary research and provided valuable insight into a relevant topic in society. Additionally, it allowed me to become more socially and culturally aware by gaining more knowledge and perspectives on this important topic.

CHAPTER 1: Role of female artists

Throughout history the role of female artists has constantly changed and evolved. In the past, females and their talents were often faded off into the background while men were acknowledged with their achievements and hailed with success and honour. Many art forms created predominantly by women, have been historically dismissed from the art historical canon as craft, as opposed to fine art.

From the Renaissance art movement in the 1400’s women were used as subjects and muses for artworks, often being objectified for the male gaze and objects of desire. While this may sound like a practise of the pre-feminist days, this can further be observed in today’s art museums with less than 3% of the artists in the Modern Art section of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art being composed by women. However, 83% of the nudes are female which was discovered during my statistical analysis, conducted while studying the famous feminist artists, the Guerrilla Girls. Women in the past were seen as inferior to men and the idea of them was to be passive while the men were the creatures of action. This can be further highlighted during the content analysis, conducted by observing the traditional artworks within the Art Gallery of NSW. In total, 100% of the artworks displayed within the gallery were made by men. However, there was only a small gap of the males to females used as the subject of the artworks, with 34 females painted and 36 males painted. The themes of the artworks differed significantly with the males portrayed as being heroic and seen as figures of importance documented to display their importance in history. Whereas, females were seen as passive creatures painted for the assumed male audience. In the 18th century, for the women, art could only be seen as a hobby and something to be done in their free time. This idea was supported in an interview with Senior Art Curator of the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, Anne Kirker, who stated; “They have in the past been seen as amateurs and the realm of “craft” was devalued.” This suggests that women were seen as inferior to men and were not seen as being able to meet the standard of craft that men were able to reach in their artworks, which continues to impact on society today.

As a result, during this time period many women turned to portraiture, landscape and still life painting, subjects that were not held in high esteem. This was due to not being able to participate in life drawing classes as they were deemed as “inappropriate” and even “dangerous” to the mores of proper young ladies. Denied access to nude models caused female artists to not receive the training necessary for the production of “important” works. Moreover, it was not acceptable for women to take up art as a full time profession. Unlike their male counterparts, women seeking professional careers in the fine arts were restricted in their opportunities to receive an artistic education. This divided male and female artists, and seems unfair as women did not receive equal opportunities as the men as a result of societal roles and expectations in the 18th century.

While in my Visual Arts class, I noticed that most of the great traditional artists that we were studying were males such as Claude Monet, Georges Seurat and Titian. This led to my question of “Why haven’t more women been considered as great artists throughout Western History?” Professor Patricia Hoffie of Griffith University responded that it was because women were denied an equivalent education for centuries and women were considered the 'property' of men. Also, this social exclusion was due to a myriad of social and cultural practices that kept women away from systems of power and authority. This suggests that women were steered away so men could remain superior in the field of work and were oppressed by gender expectations. It was not until the 19th century when female artists were permitted to study figure drawings from live subjects. Additionally, it was also known for female artists at the time to actually disguise their artworks by using a male name for their work to be showcased and acknowledged. In 1723, Dutch painter Margareta Haverman was expelled from the Académie Royale when the painting she submitted was judged too good to have been done by a woman. This can relate to the conflict theory as women were being discriminated against and being portrayed as “inferior”, creating division and continual oppression for females. In our more contemporary society we are now able to address why these issues were occurring in the past, encouraging female artists to want to make artworks that address these issues, as well as achieving similar critical acclaim of their works, similarly by those made by men allowing the emergence of more female artists. Thus, these experiences further highlight the gender imbalance that occurred in the past environment, contributing to the role of women in the art world today.

Social pressures also impacted on the presence of female artists. In my interview with Art Curator, Anne Kirker, she stated that women were often held back due to traditional roles and were expected to look after the domestic realm and not compete with male artists. “It was often at a cost as dedication to an art career for women usually meant they could not have children.” Many women felt that they needed to choose between a career and a marriage and family. It was either one or the other. Professional careers for women who did not need to work were considered detrimental as they were thought to divert women from their prescribed roles as wives and mothers. In our contemporary society women still face this issue of choosing between a full time professional career and a family life. Consequently, many women have decided to have children later on in their lives, starting their careers first. However, this is not the case for all women as some are still able to balance their careers while still having a family. Additionally, this can also be a result of changing gender roles, as more males have assumed the role of being a stay at home parent.

The roles of female artists have undeniably been challenged throughout history. My next chapter will explore the rise of the feminist art movement as it challenged the roles and representation of women within the art world.

CHAPTER 2: The feminist art movement The 1960’s saw the emergence of the feminist art movement, which culminated from various factors during the “second-wave” of feminism. Female artists were tired of being misrepresented as sexualised objects and subjects, with a main factor of also being overlooked as serious artists by male counterparts. Feminist art questioned the authority of the male-dominated Western canon and posed one of the most significant challenges to modernism. This resulted in women revolting by producing artworks during the feminist movement that had an undeniable presence that was too shocking to be ignored. Artists such as Judy Chicago, Barbara Kruger and the Guerrilla Girls rebelled against the constraints of tradition, creating a new paradigm for the female subject in the art world. The feminist art movement was not just about challenging the way women were viewed as artists and subjects in works of art, but it was about women confronting their subordinate roles in society. Art was just one platform used by feminists to rebel and promote their ideas.

The main purpose of these artworks was to bring the issue of the portrayal of women and how they are represented to the macro level of society. As well as the societal expectations and stereotypes that were being presented by the media, which could be seen in advertisements during the 60s through to the 80s, feminist artists worked to challenge these ideas. Additionally, when conducting my interviews and asking the question of what noticeable themes were explored in successful artworks produced by females, Anne Kirker, Senior Art Curator of the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art, replied with, “During the 1970s, feminist artists were often concerned with body oriented imagery, craft techniques, art performance, diaristic concerns. Nowadays artworks range widely in concept, style and method.” Kelly McDonald, an Art Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art responded that artworks were based more on the person’s experiences. “Women artists make artworks about the whole spectrum of human experience and the world we live in. Artists of all genders consider the world through the lens of their own perspective and experience. It follows that some women artists will focus their practice on female viewpoints and the female experience, though I don’t believe this defines successful artworks by women artists,” she said. This shows how female artists do not necessarily need to restrict their artworks to focusing on gender to be successful in modern society, as today a wider range of themes are now being explored to have the artists own perspective shared in society, suggesting a greater move towards social inclusion.

Additionally, for my cross-cultural research of gender, Michael Hatt, professor of Art History at the University of Warwick, stated that successful artworks produced by females are noticed most when they focus on the position of females, conveying its importance “…since it has brought to visual representation many areas of life that male artists may have ignored or overlooked such as domestic life, childbearing and childcare, sexual violence, sexism in the workplace etcetera.” This signifies that individuals should have experience and knowledge to truly understand and be able to produce impactful feminist artworks. However, during my content analysis of studying an artwork entitled “Pregnant woman 2002” by male hyperrealist sculptor Ron Mueck, it is evident that males are indeed able to portray childbearing and motherhood within their artworks. Mueck is able to highlight the monumentality and strength of pregnant women, displaying a different lens on pregnancy, one of respect. Due to pregnancy often being seen as hidden instead of displayed by a large-scale sculpture to an audience, which forces the audience to view for closer inspection. Therefore, it also conveys how artworks have changed from females being objectified to being displayed as empowering human beings by the appreciation of the female body, also being a realistic depiction of females, with one example being seen in “Pregnant woman 2002”.

Moreover, contemporary artist Barbara Kruger focuses on issues within the media, with her artworks appearing reminiscent of billboards and advertisements within society. She uses the techniques of Mass Communication to explore gender and identity and assertive text in slogans with appropriated photographs to confront the viewer. The Guerrilla Girls also compose artworks that appear similar to advertisements, however, focusing on the inequalities within art museums, exposing sexism, racism, and corruption in art and popular culture. Recently, The Guerrilla Girls have now expanded their focus, by also observing the movie and music industry, highlighting the gender constructs present in society and the representation of women. Judy Chicago was one of the pioneers within the 1970’s feminist artworks, who also composed an autobiographical book entitled, “Through the flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist” where Chicago confesses that, in her haste to be treated in a manner equal to men, she had forced herself into another unrealistic stereotype and became an under-emotional “superwoman”. This suggests that female artists had to change their identity to be taken more seriously in their line of work and to be treated at a level on par with males. Chicago worked to redress women’s traditional underrepresentation in the visual arts. Her most famous artwork is entitled “The Dinner Party” where Chicago created a mixed media installation consisting of several colossal, banquet-style tables. Included are 39 different place settings for mythical and historical women, celebrating their cultural achievements, with 999 names of other important women inscribed amongst the installation. This highlights the significant amount of women, whose works were diminished, elevating the female achievements in Western history to a heroic scale traditionally reserved for men. Chicago’s work has definitely made a huge impact for feminist art, inspiring females and evoking passion. Additionally it gave rise to a wave of school projects where children honoured the woman of their choice by decorating a paper plate, sending a powerful message during these children’s development and allowing them to understand social issues, while also having a cultural appreciation of women.

Surprisingly, during my interviews two participants believed that feminist art was a movement within art history, stating it was vital within the 1960s and 1970s and that it is still growing and evolving in a number of forms today. The other two interviewees responded that they did not necessarily believe that it was considered as a “movement” that termed feminist art. Kelly McDonald, Art Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, stated that women are identified as being feminists; however feminism is an idea that increased the awareness and appreciation of work by female artists. Additionally, Catriona Moore, Art Historian at the University of Sydney said; “No, I do not. I think feminism as a set of ideas, practices, aesthetic strategies and cultural interventions is far broader than any easy categorisation into an art movement or ‘ism’.” This conveys how she does not restrict feminist art to being made by women and the features or characteristics of post-modernism and contemporary art was informed by feminism. In my cross-cultural research of exploring male perspectives, Michael Hatt, professor of Art History at the University of Warwick, also was not sure if he would call it a movement but believed that feminist art has had a real impact on the history of art. Whatever way you look at it, artworks produced by women in the name of feminist art have more of an impact in encouraging moves towards equality as they are able to have more of a personal connection and present messages about female experiences to push the need for gender equality and social inclusion.

Therefore, the 60s and 70s were definitely a vital period in time for feminist artists. Also profoundly influencing contemporary art these feminist artists paved the way in shining a light on the underrepresentation of females in art galleries, which will be further discussed in the following chapter.

CHAPTER 3: Representation of female artists in art galleries

Despite an increase in female artists in our contemporary society compared to over 50 years ago, there are still inequalities present within the art world in terms of representation in art galleries, auction price differentials, press coverage, and inclusion in permanent-collection displays and solo-exhibition programs. During the statistical analysis of the Guerrilla Girls, represented in Figure 1, a 30-year difference demonstrates there was only a slight improvement in the representation of one-person female exhibitions in New York City Museums. These statistics are shocking as women have progressed in the macro level of society and you would assume this would filter through to different fields, such as the art world. However, it suggests there may still be factors causing there to be inequalities such as the team of curators for these museums that are contributing to the social exclusion.

In today’s society, why are females still underrepresented in art galleries? All of the interviewees in this research believe that women are underrepresented and socially excluded to a degree in the art industry. Kelly McDonald, Art Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, responded with “I believe that women artists are underrepresented in many areas of the arts. Women make up the majority of graduates from art schools in Australia, yet are often represented in fewer numbers by commercial galleries and in exhibition at art museums.” This caused me to wonder, why might majority of graduates from art schools be females? But still be represented less in art museums? After doing secondary research it was clear that art criticism is a very male dominated profession, which may be a reason due to gender bias. Women might not be receiving the time and support to build their career due to this male dominated profession. With personal experience and sexism possibly being an impact, a notable example of this was in 2013 when George Baselitz caused controversy in the art world by stating; “Women don’t paint very well. It’s a fact,” Adding that women “simply don’t pass the market test, the value test…As always, the market is right.” Female artist Micol Hebron, founder of Gallery Tally, has mentioned that when asking a gallery owner why they mostly display male made artworks they answered with “I just curate what I like, and I like art by men better.” This bias and subjective opinion creates social exclusion and discrimination towards female artists and considering that art is a form that is used for expression, there should not be any restrictions based on gender by what art should be displayed to the public.

Additionally, when asked why artworks by males are displayed more than females, Patricia Hoffie of Griffith University said “Traditional habits are hard to break.” In my cross-cultural component Michael Hatt, professor of Art History at the University of Warwick, also stated that it is because there have been more male artists than female artists throughout history. This was surprising because due to their supposedly being more male artists throughout history, shouldn’t we try to close the gap by showcasing talented female artists that are emerging fast within our society today? Also women in the past were deliberately excluded from the industry due to prejudice in society. With these boundaries removed in today’s society, obviously the context still creates inequality due to historical influences.

Through my statistical analysis, I compiled data from three art galleries to see how gender representation in Australian art galleries suffice. The art galleries involved in my research were the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), MARS (Melbourne Art Rooms) Gallery, and SOHO Galleries. The MCA had 61% of males in their artist catalogue and 39% females. In 2010, MARS had 62% males and 38% females for their solo exhibitions. In 2014, the males increased to 65% while the females decreased to 35%. This highlights the exclusion that female artists still face in our contemporary society and this may be due to the owners of the gallery’s not taking into consideration the representation of gender when selecting artworks. However there were improvements as for the works displayed in the gallery not including exhibitions had 52% males and 48% females with the gender gap being closer. Soho Galleries had 65% males and 35% females. Overall, there still needs to be improvements made, as there are more artworks produced by males than females being displayed in the galleries.

In researching through content analysis, I discovered that there is an art museum in Washington D.C. dedicated solely to female artists. Additionally, it is the only museum in the world that recognises female artists. Called National Museum of Women in the Arts, which was founded in 1987, their mission statement is; “The National Museum of Women in the Arts brings recognition to the achievements of women artists of all periods and nationalities by exhibiting, preserving, acquiring, and researching art by women and by teaching the public about their accomplishments.” This initiative is directly addressing the gender imbalance in the presentation of art in the United States of America and abroad, thus assuring great women artists a place of honour now and into the future. By having an art gallery dedicated for women and being open freely to the public, it is a great way to bring public awareness to those female artists that were overlooked throughout history and to educate the public on the accomplishments of these women and begin to implement change for the future.

When looking at the future, I do believe that this inequality will slowly start to diminish due to an increase in individuals becoming more open with their views on feminism, especially with those persons present within the public eye. Additionally, due to the works of the Guerrilla Girls, Gallery Tally and Countess, hopefully by providing statistical research that quantifies these imbalances will cause public pressure on art galleries to be more inclusive and ensure gender equity in the arts.

Conclusion

Throughout my Personal Interest Project I learnt about the contemporary art world through exploring the treatment and representation of female artists from a historical perspective, to our modern society. Upon researching I discovered the inequalities and social exclusion as a result of gender in the art world. From how females were portrayed in art as subjects and artists traditionally due to not having the same opportunities as male artists, to now challenging those traditional gender roles by creating artworks that force the audience to question the inequalities of gender due to the feminist art movement in the 1960s to 1970s and onwards.

My hypothesis of; “Female artists continue to be underrepresented and excluded from the art world as a result of their gender” was proven by statistics and data gathered from art galleries and the Guerrilla Girls, Gallery Tally and Countess, which have been counting the representation of females in galleries for over a decade. It is evident that female artists are still underrepresented in the art world due to still being under payed and by having their artworks shown less in art galleries compared to their male counterparts.

Additionally, my primary research of interviews, statistical analysis and content analysis greatly aided in my research by being able to gather the necessary data and cross-cultural component for my Personal Interest Project, as well as being able to explore continuity and change. Insightful interviews enabled me to receive various and in-depth opinions from art curators and art historians, to aid in proving my hypothesis. Additionally, statistical analysis allowed me to observe the data and trends of gender within art galleries and how these have changed slightly over time. Lastly, content analysis was effective in analysing the representation of women and men in artworks historically by displaying how their roles in art greatly differed. Also I was able to investigate two feminist artists, Judy Chicago and Ron Mueck, by seeing how a male feminist and female feminist artists may have different influential impacts in encouraging a step towards equality.

If I was able to undertake this research again I would definitely manage my time better to obtain more quality research and to be able to explore more art galleries. Additionally I would interview more males to make my research less bias and have a stronger cross-cultural component.

Furthermore, throughout this experience I have become more socially and culturally literate by becoming more aware of the inequalities that are still present within our contemporary society. Also, my awareness developed by being able to analyse why these inequalities are present. Additionally, I have grown as an individual as this has furthered my experience in my interest of art, while also growing as a researcher through my primary research of taking part in interviewing and analysing research by building on these skills.