It’s a Fine Art: Women in a Man’s World by James Millichamp

It’s a Fine Art: Women in a Man’s World

The literary world is bursting with female authors and poets who have shaped the way we think and see the world. This is true, too, of the visual arts. Female artists have been at the forefront of movements and reactions throughout art history, from

Artemisia Gentileschi to Mary Cassatt. But women have not always had an easy time, making their way in what is already a competitive and difficult industry.

The appalling treatment of Gentileschi is only one example of the oppression of successful women in history. Whilst Cassatt was privileged enough to enjoy an education and a career, her gender prohibited her from entering the social spheres that her male counterparts frequented; the bars, cafés and nightclubs that were the centre for artistic discussion amongst the Impressionists were not accessible for an upperclass woman .

James Millichamp Head of Art

Artemisia Gentileschi ‘Judith Beheading Holofernes’ c1613

Mary Cassatt ‘In the Omnibus’ c1891 ‘Afternoon Tea Party’ 1890-1891

The Nineteen Seventies and Eighties were synonymous with the Feminist Art Movement and American photographers like Cindy Sherman used their work to critique the male gaze. Barbara Kruger used text and image to challenge social constructs and Nan Goldin’s work The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1986) documented the post-Stonewall gay subculture in New York.

These artists used their voices to challenge and promote awareness and debate and the Movement was in it’s ascendency. Time for the artists to take the next step... In the Twentieth Century, we see Dame Barbara Hepworth, Britain and the world’s greatest sculptor, at the forefront of the avant garde, dismissed as an 'idiosyncratic British artist of mostly local interest', and widely criticised for putting her career in front of her family commitments. Would these kind of comments be levelled at a man in the same position? Pauline Boty, a leader and founder of the British Pop Art scene, has been largely written out of history, partly due to her untimely death but largely because of her gender. A contemporary publication on the Pop explosion captioned an image of Boty with one of her works as ‘Model with artwork’. Nice.

The Guerilla Girls formed in 1985 in New York, an anonymous group of Feminist artists, staging protests, taking over billboards and self-publishing literature, in order to tackle corruption, racism and gender discrimination. To remain anonymous, members don gorilla masks and use pseudonyms that refer to deceased female artists. Still active today, well worth a look! In a recent article in The Observer, Vanessa Thorpe writes about generations of female artists, composers and writers who have been lost to history because their names changed after marriage. She looks at a new biography on Isabel Rawsthorne, which makes this concerning argument.

Pauline Boty ‘The Only Blonde in the World’ 1963 Barbara Kruger ‘You are Not Yourself’ 1981

Rawsthorne’s powerful paintings are now attached to the three other names she used. As a result, she appears simply as a string of footnotes, and her full impact has not been recognised. Dr Carol Jacobi, author of the new study of Rawsthorne, believes we have a responsibility to raise significant female artists “out of the shadows”.

Yelena Keller on Artsy writes about Black activists in the Art world who, too, have been overlooked and written out of history. In 1977 the Combahee River Collective, a Black Feminist organisation formed to raise consciousness about race and gender issues, gathered in New Jersey for their second retreat, where they worked together to formulate a collaborative letter. They wrote:

“We fi nd it appalling, that a hundred years from now it will be possible for women to conclude that in 1977 there were no practising Black and other Third World lesbian artists.”

The debate this provoked expresses the complex and often controversial relationship between mainstream Feminism and the Black women who were so often excluded from it in the past. Throughout history, we can see that women have been presented with barriers to not only forge a career in the visual arts, but also to be remembered for their contributions. We can also recognise and celebrate the pioneers who have made it possible for female practitioners to become the leaders we see today. We are all familiar with the fascinating work of Rachel Whiteread—the first woman to win the Turner Prize, and you may have read that French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed art historian Laurence des Cars as the first female head of the world’s most popular museum, the Musée du Louvre in Paris. The way has been paved—rise to the challenge, SHS!