The Guerrilla Girls article really made me think about the artwork that is on display in the famous museums around the world. Why do most of these museums only feature males artists? It really seems like a museum could market themselves as having the largest collection of female artists. In today's society, I believe that an exhibit featuring female artists would definitely make plenty of revenue. That would not be something that the museum would have to worry about. There are so many women's rights groups out there for many different reasons and for the most part they have support from the general public. (Well I guess I am a little bias since I'm a woman...but that is just what it seems like.) A museum just needs to take a chance and be the first to showcase an entire collection of female artists and I will garentee that it will pay off.
Another group that the Guerrilla Girls strive to encourage museums to notice are artists of color. I can make the same argument from artists of color as a did for women artists. It seems like the public likes to support minorities, so why do museums not have art by them? Well I think it has to do with what someone mentioned in class. The public supports them when its easy, like in music or movies. Art has a more selective audience. If I had to pick one reason why museums don't just take the chance and put up an exhibit of female artists or artists of color it would be because of the selective audience. They aren't looking just at the general public like pop culture is.
I agree with your points, but we might both be a little bit bias since we are both females. I just feel that women are capable of anything that males are, so what we do should be presented and respected in the same sort of fashion that it would be if it was done by a male.
ReplyDeleteIt definitely would be neat to have a museum that would try to stand against the standards in the art world and build an exhibit around male artists. I am a guy and I know I am definitely no more artistically inclined than anyone on this Earth, male or female.
ReplyDeleteBecause so many of these biases are unconscious, the best way to illuminate the existence of bias might be to have critics/other artists/the public look at paintings with no pre-knowledge of the artist's gender. ( Of course, the lesser known the artists are, the more significant the results will likely be.) I prefer to think that most people truly wish to be fair, however much they fail at it.
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