{"id":12424,"date":"2024-06-11T22:32:52","date_gmt":"2024-06-11T20:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/?p=12424"},"modified":"2024-06-26T17:04:42","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T15:04:42","slug":"women-and-art-a-sexist-history-to-be-rewritten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/12424\/women-and-art-a-sexist-history-to-be-rewritten\/","title":{"rendered":"Women in art \u2013 a sexist history to be rewritten"},"content":{"rendered":"
The station is busy as always at Gare du Nord. Even though hundreds of travelers crowd themselves at the different platforms, the regional train going north is fairly empty. Getting off only 20 minutes north of Paris feels like entering a whole other part of the country. French countryside-style stone houses, calm streets, friendly smiles from the people outside the local bakery and children riding their bikes freely on the street are the first impressions of the Parisian suburb Deuil-la-Barre.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A short walk from the station, in a yellow house, a window is open on the bottom floor. If you take a peek inside you\u2019ll see canvases against a wall, two easels standing on the floor, and pieces of paintings here and there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Hold on, I’ll let you in!”, says a voice inside from the window.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Born and raised in Denver, Colorado in the US, Venezuelan-American artist Lala Drona moved to Paris to pursue her artist career. 11 years later and now she has her own studio.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “<\/span>I first thought about moving to New York, but then I thought \u201chmm, where do all the New York artists go?\u201d, says Lala.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And that\u2019s how she ended up in the artist capital of Europe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Her art consists of videos and paintings that tackle themes from digital spaces to the body and female gaze. Her paintings often include portrayals and pictures of female body parts, and she often uses birth as a recurring element in her art.<\/span><\/p>\n[aesop_gallery id=”12513″ revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n Coming to Paris in her twenties, it was difficult to get the respect and mentorship from the respected male artists in the scene. The opportunities as a young woman were strained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n[aesop_quote type=”block” background=”#ffffff” text=”#000000″ align=”left” size=”1″ quote=”"Women are not seen as geniuses"” cite=”Artist Lala Drona” parallax=”off” direction=”left” revealfx=”off”]\n As she was looking for internships as an aspiring artist, she got negative responses due to the fact that she was a woman. The male gallerists and artists wanted only male interns, due to the fact that having a female intern could be \u201ctoo distracting\u201d:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “There\u2019s clearly a bias that women, especially young, are not seen as genius. Which is clear bullshit. And the young men are often seen as prot\u00e9g\u00e9s”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n[aesop_gallery id=”12526″ revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n The 36-year old artist says she experiences a great difference in respect now compared to when she was younger. Even though the respect has increased, she says that the biases which are benefiting men, is still very much present. In the art world, but also in her own mind.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ” Approaching somebody in a position of power, I feel in general, even at events and parties, we’re not really seen as important. I feel that I’m not looked at as an important person. Whilst if you see an older man across the room, you kind of assume that he is ‘somebody’,”<\/span><\/p>\n Even when the woman has a significant role in the room, she still can get diminished. Lala recalls a humiliating incident from an exhibition she was a part of.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “A group of French men said a joke in broken English, including the word blowjob. I asked them if they knew what the word meant, and one of them said \u201cNo, but you can show me\u201d and they all started laughing”<\/span><\/p>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/svjmedia.nl\/internationaljournalism\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/378\/2024\/06\/IMG_7204-\u2013-Redigerad-2-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” credit=”Photo by: Nathalie Koskinen” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n Not only have women artists been overlooked, diminished and belittled in art history, but there are even multiple cases of women\u2019s works getting stolen or discredited by men. French sculptor Auguste Rodin allegedly stole some works of his 20 year younger mistress and pupil Camille Claudel. Margaret Keane\u2019s husband Walter Keane <\/span>took all credit for her big-eyes paintings, and stated that he was the artist<\/span><\/a>. Marcel Duchamp is attributed to the Fountain, a piece that changed the course of modern art, but<\/span> in reality was an idea originally belonging to Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lala Drona says that the lack of female representation in history has affected her as an artist throughout her whole life. Even though she\u2019s seeing a change and shift in the representation of women in the art scene, she\u2019s aware of how much history actually plays a role in the art world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “There will always be these historical masters like Manet and Picasso who run the market. Women are not included in that side of history, and I don\u2019t think they could ever be included equally, even if we rediscovered them”<\/span><\/p>\n[aesop_gallery id=”12500″ revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n The term \u201ccuratorial activism\u201d was introduced by American art director Maura Reilly in 2018, to explain the action of organizing exhibitions with the aim of giving the spotlight to the underrepresented groups of artists that have been left out from the greater narrative within art.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Feminist curating, which is a form of curatorial activism, has focused on shedding light on women, and to address the gender discrimination and imbalance in the art world. Even though feminist curating is a fairly new term, <\/span>historically the practice of exhibiting only women artists has been done for many years, and can be dated 100 years back<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n[aesop_quote type=”block” background=”#fffafa” text=”#0a0a0a” align=”left” size=”1″ quote=”"The museums will choose men to represent because it’s prestigious"” cite=”Art historian Marie Bagi” parallax=”off” direction=”left” revealfx=”off”]\n According to art historian and professor <\/span>Marie Bagi feminist curating can be practiced in different ways but the conclusion is that they want equality and fairness between the genders.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “Feminist curating can be about vindication of women, and some curators will be harsh and aggressive towards the institutions and won\u2019t include men artists whatsoever. It can also be seen as a more welcoming kind of movement, where the women try to work together with institutions, and make themselves seen”<\/span><\/p>\n Bagi is also the founder of art organisation Espaces Artistes Femmes<\/em>, which is an artistic place to honor women in the world of art.\u00a0 For there to be a change in the visibility of women, Bagi says that a big part of the responsibility is on the leaders and big institutions, like museums and auction houses. These institutions are usually led by men, both in the artistic and administrative roles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “It\u2019s about money. <\/span>They don’t care about if it’s women or men, but since the men are more visible and more high in the market, they will choose men to represent because it’s prestigious”, says Bagi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWomen as distraction, men as prot\u00e9g\u00e9s<\/b><\/h3>\n
The historical impact<\/b><\/h3>\n
Feminist curating as a tool to increase visibility<\/b><\/h3>\n
Women need to buy art<\/b><\/h3>\n