Dear Aunt Art Agony,
The new director of the big gallery has put shows by women artists on hold, except for women who already have had big shows there. He is taking art by other women out of group shows. Women’s art is disappearing from group catalogues. He tells women that if they pay for their own show, they can have one. He made a new rule that only lets rich Caucasians go to openings. This director likes Marilyn Monroe. They both are famous people.
Aunt Art Agony, I am worried about the future. Will some women become extinct?
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2 comments:
Gentle Reader,
We regret to underscore your perceptiveness. Women's art is not as important as men's art. This is because women are not as important as men. Why this is so is a heart-breaker of planetary fate. No, we amend ourselves. It is a tragedy of cultures in which testosterone is priviledged by the testosterone-toxified. It is a drug. They know not what they do. Or, at least, they appear surprised when what they do is explained in large simple statistics. We are thinking of grant allotments, for example.
Ms. Monroe was smart enough to play dumb and become, albeit posthumously, an international industry that inhales men's money along with their egregious phantasies. We can only hope that funders of institutions that favour all things male will shake themselves out of their pubescent Land of Fog and strive for more enlightened and respectful engagements in the future. Marilyn would have wanted it.
What might this have to do with it?
As of a random September 3, 2009 website survey, art galleries whose boards have somewhat equal (or even helpful) gender composition:
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria (7 women, 7 men)
McKenzie Art Gallery, Regina (10 women, 7 men)
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinberg (8 women, 7 men)
Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon (9 women, 7 men)
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec City (4 women, 5 men)
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, North York (4 women, 5 men)
Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa (7 women, 7 men)
Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery, Oshawa (8 women, 7 men)
The Rooms, St. John’s (10 women, 6 men)
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg (7 women, 8 men)
Art Galleries that need an Equity Advisory Committee:
Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton (7 women, 11 men)
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax (6 women, 15 men)
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (13 women, 29 men)
Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown (6 women, 23 men)
Glenbow Museum, Calgary (7 women, 14 men)
Musée d’art Contemporain, Montréal (5 women, 16 men)
National Art Gallery, Ottawa (4 women, 7 men)
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