WHERE are the BLACK FEMALE AVANT — GARDES?

Black women remain underrepresented in the art world.

Black women have long been the unsung heroes of American pop culture. From music and fashion to everyday words and phrases, Black women exert massive influence over pop culture — what we watch, listen to, read, say and do on a daily basis. So why aren’t Black women represented in museums and art history textbooks?

Forbes contributor Adrienne Gibbs interviewed Aria S. Halliday on the subject of Black women as cultural muses. Halliday, a University of Kentucky assistant professor, argues that “Black women have influenced every aspect of popular culture since they were brought over on slave ships.” Halliday is not alone in her assessment of African American women and pop culture. Both Halliday and former Vibe editor-in-chief Danyel Smith released successful books on the topic in 2022.

Moreover, the entertainment industry is more concerned with diversity than ever, with social media campaigns such as #MeToo and #OscarsSoWhite leading to dramatic changes in who is given opportunities and recognized for their creativity. Thus, we can only expect interest in Black female influence to grow with each coming year.

Despite their importance in shaping the cultural moment, Black women are rarely applauded with the same enthusiasm as white people or even their Black male counterparts. This problem is especially prevalent in the fine arts, where wom en — specifically women of color —have always been underrepresented in art museums, galleries and textbooks. In 2019, a group of mathematicians, statisticians and art historians at Williams College researched 18 major American museum collections and found that only 1.2% of works were produced by African American artists, by far the lowest share of all demographics studied. Unsurprisingly, white male artists dominated museum collections with 85.4% of works produced by white artists, and 87.4% produced by men. In other words, Black female artists are given almost no room to shine in our cultural institutions.

Black women have always been at a disadvantage when it comes to succeeding in the fine arts. Historically, white men have been given the educational opportunities and resources necessary to pursue a career in the fine arts. Black Americans, on the other hand, have struggled under the lingering legacy of slavery. Whereas white artists benefit from unbridled freedom, generational wealth, or at least a preconceived notion of competency, Black artists are forced to fight the institutional odds stacked against them.

Black women’s experiences are shaped not only by systemic racism but also by deeply-rooted sexism. This intersection of prejudices (termed misogynoir by scholar Moya Bailey in 2010) means that Black women are not always given their due in campaigns to champion African American and female creative voices. In many cases, African American women remain a subjugated class of creative thinkers whose works are neglected by our cultural institutions. Thanks to the team at Williams College, we can definitively say that there is a misogynoir problem

WRITTEN BY Elise Provident

DESIGNED BY Jakob Roberts