CIARA MCFAULDS
Women are Undervalued in the Art World.
May 2025
Fine Art BA Hons Dissertation
DOI 10.20933/100001379
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Ciara McFaulds
Fine Art (Hons)
Word Count: 7095
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in Fine Art.
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and design
University of Dundee 2025
Abstract
This dissertation aims to investigate if women artists are undervalued in the art community. Women in general have been undermined for generations and in the art community women are at the bottom of the chain. Men were always the artists; this was not a subject for a woman. As time progressed women became artists also, but it was not an easy development. The men of the world made it dificult for women to progress as artists and even tried to keep them hidden in history when they would make an impact on the arts. Through critical analysis I intend to fnd out the why women are not valued. I will be studying the economic and historical aspects that afect the value of a women artist. I will also examine diference women artists and explore the boundaries they have broken and how that has afected all women as artists for the better. Another aspect I will observe is the Guerilla Girls poster titled “The Advantages of Being A Women Artist” in this poster there are many diferent statements that are actually disadvantages that women face as artists, I pinpoint many of the important statements from the list and use women artists to convey the truthfulness behind them.
List of illustrations
Figures
1.1
“Terentius Neo and his wife” (50 AD)
Roman fresco
Page 12
2.1
Georgia O’Keefe
“Grey Line With Black, Blue And Yellow ” (1923)
Oil on canvas
Page 21
3.1
Guerilla Girls
“The Advantages Of Being A Women Artist” (1988)
Poster
Page 23
3.2 Frida Kahlo
“Self-Portrait With Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird” (1940)
Oil on canvas
Page 25
3.3
Jenny Saville
“Mother and Children (After the Leonardo Cartoon) ” (2008)
Charcoal, with stumping and touches of rose chalk, on white paper.
Page 27
3.4
Jenny Saville
“Plan” (1993)
Oil on canvas
Page 28
Introduction
This dissertation aims to investigate if women artists are undervalued in the art world by looking at many different aspects within the art industry to justify whether this statement is true and the reasons behind it. This dissertation is structured into t hree distinct chapters.
In Chapter One I will delve into the economic reasons why women are not valued as artists, comparing the differences between both men and women’s work from an economic view in addition to exploring why women’s work is always economically different to men. Additionally, I will explore the foundational ideas presented by Pierre Bourdieu regarding different forms of capital social, cultural, and economic using the three forms to show an insight into women’s social stratification. This examination will include an analysis of their social behaviour and how this behaviour, in turn, affects their experiences both positively and negatively within the art world. Furthermore, I will discuss the historical aspects of women and men in the arts with a particular emphasis on nude painting. This focus will reveal the significant impact that history has had on modern perceptions of gender and art, as well as the differin g ways men and women perceive visual art.
In Chapter Two, I will embark on a thorough investigation of the art movements that took shape in the aftermath of the World Wars. Postwar resulted in a mass shift in societal norms and artistic expression, where a new way of living was developed. Since then, the world has changed extremely and has affected art on a huge scale. I will illuminate how the women of this era —often overlooked—played crucial roles as catalysts for change within the art community. By examining various developments
and influential figures of the time, I aim to shed light on how these women not only contributed to but also helped redefine the art we cherish today.
Finally, in Chapter Three, I will conduct an analysis of the Guerilla Girls proactive poster titled "Advantages of Being a Woman Artist.” This eye -opening artwork presents twelve ‘advantages,’ with an additional thirteenth that is more of a pun for the poster. I highlight seven of the ‘advantages’ and compare them with the real -life experiences of various artists to ascertain their validity. Notably, all the ‘advantages’ listed by the Guerilla Girls are, in fact, disadvantages that women have battled with for decades. I will explore how many of these challenges are being overcome in today's evolving landscape, providing insight into the current standing of women artists.
Chapter One
George Baselitz once said, “Women don’t paint very well” (Gørrill , 2020) which caused an uproar in the art community. His statement is an opinion rooted in the fact that the success of female painters has historically been quite limited. While the historical succession part is true, being a successful artist is not mere ly based on skill or talent.
Gender plays a huge role in whether an artist can ‘make it’. The value of women's art is often assessed by comparing it to similar works by male artists. This comparison establishes a baseline, from which the value of a woman's work is often reduced, resulting in prices that can be less than a quarter of their male counterparts. (Gørrill, 2020)
Additionally, the signature on work also affects the evaluation of the art, a woman’s signature can dimmish the work's value compared to the enhanced value of work that is signed by a man. A study found that unsigned artwork by men is typically valued higher than unsigned work by women. Interestingly, while the value of unsigned men's work is significantly lower than that of their signed pieces, the unsigned work by women is valued higher than their signed works. This dynamic reduces the gender value gap by 37% (Gørrill, 2020)
These findings indicate that the pay gap in the art world is influenced by the perceived gender of the artist, suggesting that the gap could be much narrower if not for gender bias towards female artists.
Pierre Bourdieu was a prominent social theorist who formulated the theory of forms of capital, which is divided into three categories: economic capital, social capital, and cultural capital.
Social capital involves obtaining resources through networking, which leads to recognition. Economic capital refers to financial resources that can be converted into money. Lastly, cultural capital is defined as the acquisition of valuable knowledge and skills that vary across different social classes.
Economic capital refers to the material resources a person possesses, including money and artwork. Art can be viewed as a form of currency, it is an investment for the consumer to purchase artwork from an up -and-coming artists whilst their work is still being sold at a lower price. As their popularity expands, this results in the value of their artwork to increase. There is almost a $100 million difference between the price of men’s work and the price of a women. One of Francis Bacon's triptych was sold for $142.2 million compared to a Georgia O’Keeffe painting which is the highest ever paid-for work of a deceased woman at $44.4 million (Reilly, 2015). This is evident that women’s art is not being valued nearly as highly as men. Consequently, it would then be considered that art by women would be less desirable, particularly for those who are looking to project wealth. With this outcome in mind, art by a woman would not be worth buying as there would be no hope of getting a worthy profit in the future.
O’Keeffe herself once said, “The men liked to put me down as the best woman painter. I think I’m one of the best painters.” (Reilly, 2015) However, the statistics do not lie in terms of worth, if the choice is between gaining $100 million or losing out on it, nine times out of ten money hunger will prevail.
Social capital is an essential resource for artists, in order for an artist to be successful they must create connections through socialisation. Social capital leads us to believe that since women weren’t allowed to gain an art education until the 1870s (Myers, 2019) their networking hasn’t grown.
Despite limitations to this, as there were female self -taught artists, the lack of acceptance hindered their ability to gain social capital. Since art by women is relatively new compared to the historical line of men creating art there is less knowledge of contacts within the industry for the women.
This does not mean that men have decades worth of contacts but factors such as their family names being established and well known in the community, which would give them an immediate boost. Familial art connections are a provider of social capital. It is one of the easiest connections to have, being able to use their full name, that small detail resulting in them gaining instant connections. Those with these connections have a privileged advantage into gaining social capital. Due to the discourse around female artists, the majority of those who were privileged with these connections, were male. For the artists who start with zero connections, the network must be built from the ground up.
Janet Sobel is a prime example for social capital, she did not start painting until she was already a mother of five and a grandmother. It was her son Sol Sobel who introduced her paintings to artists and writers, giving her a direct line into a circle of people who helped her work get into exhibitions within just a few years.
Cultural capital is divided into three factors: objective, embodied, and institutionalized. Focusing on the institutionalized aspect refers to education and qualifications that can influence an individual’s cultural capital.
Artwork is evaluated based on more than just its appearance or the technique used in its creation. Various factors related to the artist, such as their educational background, the grants they have received, their exhibition history, and gallery representation, are all considered when assessing the value of their work.
Unfortunately, this stigma against female artists has hindered their ability to build a portfolio when compared to the success of their male counterparts.
Men are often accepted into galleries the quickest, which allows them to sell more of their work and establish connections with additional galleries. This discrepancy leaves female artists at a disadvantage in terms of cultural capital, highlighting the critical issue of gender disparity in the art world.
From 2015 – 2020 women undergo a quarter of the big solo shows in Europe and the US (Judah, 2020), this reveals that women aren’t getting a noticeable amount of attention from galleries to get into these shows.
Painting has been around for thousands of years, and portrait paintings are seen at the beginning. It may have started with picture stories on cave walls but progressed to the art form it is now. From the beginning, women were the subject matter and men were the painters. Importantly, regardless of the muses' gender, paintings were conditioned and seen through the male gaze.
An ancient mural preserved for almost 2000 years titled “Terentius Neo and his wife” (Carmel, 2022) is an example of the use of women in art during these times. The
Figure 1.1: “Terentius Neo and his wife” (50 AD) Roman fresco
woman is being used in the work solely as a way of showing her off, the title of the painting shows they don’t care for her name or who she is, just an added subject.
The women of royalty are the only ones seen to be given a respectful piece, with their names and life stories written in the artwork description. In recent years, the shift to bring women forward has been greater but the mindset towards them being the subject and not the artist still stands.
Women were painted to be idolised. Nude paintings have been about since prehistoric times (ArtStyle, 2021), the earliest paintings represented the Greek gods and goddesses. Many included religious scenes such as stories from the bible i.e. Adam and Eve paintings, however, the demand for nude paintings and exploring the human body increased especially the ones of women. The desirability of a naked woman for male painters only furthered the idea that a woman couldn’t be the painter, as they could not capture the male gaze and idealise the muse to appease the audience that they were creating for.
Men and women perceive the female nude in distinctly different ways, this is a significant factor in why female artists are viewed differently to males. Men tend to paint the female nude from an objectifying perspective, viewing the painting of a female primarily for their own desires and pleasure s. They have a more ‘evaluated’ view, although women can share this perspective, they also consider how it reflects on themselves and their own appearance when viewing a female nude. (Eck, 2003) It is possible that the evaluated view that men have when painting women could come from the idea that beauty standards aren’t just about personal taste but that there is a clear beauty formula.
Aristotle stated that “The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness” (BBC Radio 2 - Faith In The World Week - 8 brilliant definitions of beauty, from Aristotle to Aguilera , 2025).
This statement created a baseline for a form that was used in art for decades. By using a mathematical way of thinking to create art, the subject matters and compositions were all very mundane when you compare them to the modern art of the late 20th and 21st centuries. There is a clear difference shown when women create art, as they are more focused on the process of the work, why they choose the make it, what story are they conveying etc. When women were not allowed to create, the only painters were men an d their view from this mathematical standpoint to achieve an outcome that was satisfactory to their male viewers. Specifically, because a woman’s opinion would not matter anyway. This mindset was applied to the nudes of females, they also used the golden r atio (a beauty formula with the perfect proportions) to tweak the appearance to perfection. It worked for the Renaissance period, as a lot of the portraits would look extremely similar due to there not being a wide range of materials or paints. This is why even a Renaissance portrait of a simple person would look majestic because it was still in the same style as the religious portraits. The religious portraits are separated from regular portraits by painting scenes from bible stories.
When men viewed images of female nudes they commented on how ‘attractive, good looking and dream-worthy’ they were compared to when they were given male nudes to view, they would refer to it as art or looking like a scene from pornography. (Eck, 2003)
Both men and women are disinterested when viewing male nudes, and the lack of desire and pleasure has a big impact on this. Since men and women look at the
female nude with different standards, they would then paint them in opposite ways. This shows to be one of the reasons why male painters stayed at the top, the demographic was for male viewers and the women did not get to voice their opinions.
Throughout history, women have often disguised their identities to achieve success. “Dreadful thing to have one’s paintings identifiable as having been done by a woman” (Karner, 1991)
Sexist views have permeated the industry, leading to the presumption that women's work is delicate and primarily consists of floral themes. The idea that gender can be identified through artwork removes the individuality from the artist, conforming them to social beliefs. Nonetheless, since women’s suffrage and winning the right to vote, women started to gain a voice and it has gotten louder. As their voices are now being heard, women are now able to make art about women and it is a more relatable concept. This draws women in to be the viewers as they can connect with art now, and in turn, it means they gain recognition.
Chapter Two
Out of all artists nationwide 46 percent of them are made up of women, however, these are not the figures in the galleries. Women have always been influential in the making of art, but were always side -lined. (Shetty, 2020).
During president Roosevelts presidency, he created a program called the works progress administration (WPA) to help people gain employment after the great depression (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019). The WPA allowed for women artists to shin e as this was the first time they had an opportunity to be on equal footing with the male artists. Many female artists were able to gain a place in the art community and this became the birth of many women that play an important role in modern art today. After the great depression came the second world war, during this, materials and technologies were created which allowed a surge in creativity within the art community (Goss, 2004). From this abstract expressionism, pop art, minimalism and conceptual art were formed. Abstract expressionism was the first movement to emerge from the post-war period. Artists started to create from much more than what they could see, they started to use other influences like music, their experiences, their personal feelings e tc. This is when artists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning rose to fame. The phenomenal female artists during this time did not receive the same recognition although they also helped make this movement thrive. Janet Sobel, mentioned p reviously, had a short career becoming successful with her surrealist paintings, she said “I am a surrealist, I paint what I feel within me” (Hessel, 2022) Sobel’s work was very influential and Jackson Pollock, ‘creator’ of action painting, was one of the artists known to like and be influenced by her work. Sobel was always known solely in relation to pollocks
career instead of by her own work. (Zalman, 2015). Sobel’s first solo exhibition was in 1945 which included ‘milky way’, a painting that contained swirls and drip -like paint. Pollocks drip paintings debuted in 1947, and he also liked to use astronomical themed names for his paintings. It is not far -fetched to think that she was a big influence on his work and that a woman was at the fore front for this new way of painting.
Lee Krasner was also an extraordinary influence specifically on abstract expressionism. Krasner was an established artist before she met Pollock in 1941, later getting married in 1945, it was Krasner who introduced Pollock to the New York art world (Hessel , 2022). Pollock is a great example of someone who benefitted in his career from the women surrounding him, the fact that it is not well -known information validates the passive mindset towards women. Krasner and Pollock moved to Long Island where Pollock used the barn as his personal studio whereas Krasner used her bedroom. Despite Kranser being the successful one in the beginning she was subjected to the bedroom as Pollocks success had exceeded hers within a matter of years. With women’s rights still not being equal to men’s, it seems only right that he should be the one to have the studio space as he would’ve been the current breadwinner. Krasner and Pollocks artwork are similar, but the fact that Pollock was a man allowed him to get a lot more recognitio n even if he was newer to the business. In 1956, Pollock died in a car crash, this is when Krasner’s artwork changed drastically. She moved into his studio and had the freedom to paint with her whole body. Krasner’s most successful period was when she was widowed, this doesn’t mean to say he solely foreboded her success, but it shines a light on how a woman can fall into the shadow of a man whether it is intentional or not.
Working at the same time as Krasner was Elaine De Kooning, who was also a key contributor to the movement. She married Willem De Kooning, another massive name amongst artists, this lasted a little over 10 years before they separated. Elaine was a successful writer and used this to boost Willems career, she would write reviews for ‘Art News’. While they were together Willem would give Elaine traditional drawing lessons, he would critique the drawings and have her do them many times, the teaching may seem on the harsher side, but Elaine benefitted from it (Moonan, 2015). After their separation, she took up teaching to support herself and continued to create portraits that were originally started for fun while she was with Willem. The most important commission she did was of President John F. Kennedy. Elain e was a bold choice for this commission as she was a Female who was painting in the abstract expressionist style which was not yet well known. Elaine also has done very few commissioned works throughout her c areer as most of her portraits were of close friends (BloomB, 2015). Elaine’s work of John F. Kennedy allowed her to be known as an artist as he gave her a platform by asking her to do the commission. Pop art was the next art movement to emerge, it rose during the 1950s and peaked in the 1960s. The movement was inspired by the new commercial culture, abandoning the traditional painting and sculpture art forms. Pop art was seen as ‘anti-art’ as it was so radically different to what had come before. It was meant to reflect the new world that they were living in. Pauline Boty was a co -founder of the 1960s British pop art movement, she lived a short life dying at the age of 28 but she achieved a lot in her short lifetime. Her work was described as bold, unusual, outrageous etc. (Walker, 2023) she was a feminist and showed it through her work. Boty was excluded from art history due to the fact she died so young but luckily her paintings were saved and allowed her to be acknowledged as an artist when they
were rediscovered 23 years after her death. Boty’s work opened the eyes of many people to the idea pop art wasn’t solely created by male artists as they previously believed for so long.
The pattern and decoration movement were then short-lived but helped women in the long run. It ran from mid 1970s to the early 1980s. Participating artists used wallpapers, motifs, textiles etc. as the inspirations for their work to celebrate decorative traditions from across the world. The movement was a new spin on abstraction with it being pattern paintings enabling them to be able to create designs. Many women participated in the pattern and decoration movement which led to them being celebrated. This brought a voice to women artists as the majority of the main artists in the movement were women it was no longer simple to shield them out.
Miriam Schapiro is a prominent figure in the feminist art movement, best known for her feminist collages. These comp ositions often feature floral patterns and fabrics that represent domestic spaces traditionally associated with women. Through her work, Schapiro highlights how women can use feminine elements to elevate their art, expressing pride in their identity as women rather than conforming to traditional male artistic conventions (Thackara, 2020). Although women have always had more succession in abstract art (Gørrill, 2020) this type of art is like a sister to abstraction therefore makes sense that they would get their credit here. However, an argument could be made that men are the reason women have success in abstraction as they were pushed to be more creative and out of the social norm to gain traction for their work. Currently, they dominate in abstract work as they rank in higher value compared to most men’s abstract work. This creates a new issue as there’s now a lane for female artists in the industry, but the goal is there are no lanes.
Georgia O’Keefe is one of the most remarkable female artists of the 20 th century, she truly made a mark on modern art. O’Keefe set her eyes on being an artist, experimenting with abstraction to develop her work she created work that expressed her feelings. O’Keefe sent her work to a friend who showed them to Alfred Stieglitz.
(Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, 2015)
This was a great use of social capital for her as by sending her work she created new connections including the one connection in particular that propelled her forward as an artist.
Stieglitz was an art dealer and photographer who then became O’Keefe’s husband. He was the first person to exhibit her work in 1916 then once the mid 1920s hit she had established herself as a significant figure in American art. Stieglitz promoted O’Keefe work until he died but the controversial aspect of him being the promoter is that he was the one to suggest that O’Keefe’s work was referring to the gender and sexuality of women. (Georgia O’Keeffe - O’Keeffe’s place in art history , no date)
While O’Keefe’s work does have a lot of symbolism that matches this notion, she was not originally going down that route. However, still to this day her work is compared to being of erotic interpretation. (Ellis -Petersen, 2016)
O’Keefe’s titles for her work brings clarity that it’s not supposed to be a piece with a hidden agenda, instead, her work was about the literal mark -making with brushes and use of different colours. Although the painting (figure 2.1) can be seen as representing a vagina, why is it that this was attached to her after so many denials? This could be down to the sheer fact that she is a woman. The original expression of her abstract work wasn’t good enough to get her into the spotlight, the only fault with her work is that once we see it and hear ‘ladybits’ it becomes the sole factor for many along with the fact that she is a woman.
Bringing us back to the male view O’Keefe wanted to be known as an artist, not a female artist, as most female artists don’t want. With most viewers and buyers being male, especially in the 1920s, Stieglitz was understandably smart to say her work portrayed the female anatomy because it would’ve captured the male attention. It may not have been as interesting as a full nude but as artists minds evolved and adapted to abstraction, the erotic spin on it allowed for it to be a massive hit.
Figure 2.1: Georgia O’Keefe “Grey Line With Black, Blue And Yellow ” (1923) oil on canvas
This is where the struggle for female artists lie, O’Keefe in her time could not have been as successful by just making art. None of the female artists ever truly get the limelight or recognition they deserve when making a mark on art history. Although making art that catered to the male gaze allows her work to be socially acceptable and in turn allows for people to see her work and appreciate her as an artist.
Chapter Three
Guerilla girls are a group of activist artists who wear gorilla masks in public and use the names of historically famous women artists to disguise themselves. They are explicitly feminists with the main goal of eradicating gender and racial bias in the art community.
In 1988 the Guerrilla Girls produced a poster that headlined “The advantages of being a woman artist” This consists of thirteen ‘advantages’ that aren’t advantages at all, instead it consists of all the barriers women must face as artists. Since this post er was made in the 80s there are some of the ‘advantages’ on the list that have been overcome but there are many that still stand today.
3.1: Guerilla Girls “The Advantages Of Being A Women Artist” (1988) Poster
Figure
One of the advantages is “not having to be in shows with men”. It is a bit farfetched to have the shows be separated by gender that doesn’t conform with feminism, although there hasn’t been a great deal of solely female shows due to all the reasons that have been spoken about so far. Male dominated shows were never headlined as ‘no females allowed’ but due to the standard, they would just end up being filled with only men’s work. The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston held an exhibition in 2021 called ‘woman take the floor’ with over 200 artworks on view.
Nonie Gadsden, the curator said, “The whole point is to get name recognition to these artists who are so deserving because women did not get the same attention as men did with the press, the critics and the acclaim, in their lifetime,” (Sayej, 2021)
Gadsden challenged the industry by eradicating the male gaze in this exhibition, the work was done by women with no desire of trying to make male eyes happy. The exhibition consisted of 7 different sections with many different art forms. The first section that people walked into was portraits of women by women to confront the viewers with what type of exhibition they had entered.
Another ‘advantage’ is “seeing your ideas live on in the work of others”, the guerrilla girls' work mainly consists of written words but the idea behind it is to break down the barriers between men and women. This is being shown a lot more in the 21st century than in the late 20th century from the impact they have, it has created a domino effect where slowly we start to see guerrilla girls in all feminist work. There are many famous female artists who have greatly influenced the art world and played with multiple styles as well as creating their own. They don’t get the recognition for the sole invention of these styes, instead men will be influenced by them and they will be praised for it.
Frida Kahlo, a well -known name in the art community wasn’t ever recognised for her talent throughout her life. Kahlo sustained severe injuries in a bus accident when she was only 18 and expressed her pain through her art. Throughout her life, she was known as the wife of Diego Rivera who was also an artist. After her death, her artwork was truly seen as she expressed so many painful moments in her life in her work. (Female Artists Who Changed The World, 2020)
She created work with a mix of realism and surrealism bringing together different components in her art. She used symbolism to convey the story in her artwork. Kahlo’s work influenced so many that her ideas would be seen in the work of others she was a turning point for artists everywhere.
Figure 3.2 is one of Kahlo’s most famous paintings with a lot of symbolism throughout the painting to represent her pain. When she was creating this piece, she was undergoing a separation from her husband which must have been difficult for
Figure 3.2: Frida Kahlo “Self-Portrait With Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird” (1940) oil on canvas
her as she painted many works to convey the sadness she was feeling. In the painting, she is seen wearing a thorn necklace that pierces her neck and draws blood this is obvious physical pain portrayed to represent her pain, whether it be from the divorce or her previous accident. Kahlo paints three animals in the painting a black cat, a monkey and a hummingbird dangling from her thorn necklace supposedly dead. Black cats are signs of bad luck which is why they are usually seen with the ‘evil’ characters in stories. A hummingbird can represent joy and love but with the sick twist of the bird being deceased, she could be trying to depict the exact opposite. Lastly, the monkey is associated with the devil in Christian symbolism, this painting shows the monkey tying the thorns at the back of her neck which could be in correspondence with the pain her husband inflicted on her. This symbolism allowed for a more interesting painting for the viewer and gained her recognition as an artist since she pioneered using symbolism to express her identity. Jenny Saville is a modern day artist who also works on self portraits and was influenced by Kahlo, she also uses her personal experiences to influence her work. Saville’s art mostly consists of focusing on the flesh of a female body, she uses the model’s body to depict a story in her paintings. Saville has a series of works that focus on pregnancy and motherhood, this allowed her to gain a new way of working as her children inspired her to be loose and free with her work and she portrays this through her works.
Figure 3.3: Jenny Saville “Mother and Children (After the Leonardo Cartoon) ” (2008) Charcoal, with stumping and touches of rose chalk, on white paper. Her charcoal drawing ‘mother and children’ incorporates a sense of motherhood with lines that are drawn then erased and redrawn symbolising the messiness that comes with having children. Even the specific poses drawn for her and the children represent what it is like to be a mother, both children are squirming around trying to jump out of her arms uncomfortably while trying to keep them in one position. This is an accurate depiction of what it is like to have children and not a posed photo of the child asleep that was one out of a million where they were not depicted smiling.
Saville’s artwork with the inclusion of her children also relates to the advantage ‘having the opportunity to choose between career and motherhood’. Saville goes against all the people who believe that female artists decline once they have children, instea d she said that she works more now that she does have children. (Lesso, 2022)
In this modern day and age, the idea that having a child will diminish a woman’s work is almost absurd. There are many working women who juggle providing for themselves and taking care of their children, between school time and extracurricular activities that are available for children to go to in developed countries it means that there is time for a woman to work and stay/become successful.
One of Saville’s earlier self portraits ‘plan’ uses lines drawn on her body to represent a plastic surgery plan. The idea behind plan is to draw our attention to the flesh on the body itself and the complicated relationship women have with their bodies sometimes resulting in plastic surgery. (The Art Story, 2018)
Saville became infatuated with the idea of surgery as her interest with flesh and surgery is something that can change it just like how pregnancy can also change the body.
Figure 3.4: Jenny Saville “plan” (1993) oil on canvas
Furthermore, female artist’s ideas do live on in the works of others whether it’s as obvious as some male inspirations as it is male artists that get the credit for most new art techniques.
An additional advantage from the Guerrilla Girls is ‘Being reassured that whatever kind of art you make it will be labelled feminine’, this quote has a direct correlation to the discussion about Georgia O’Keefe. O’Keefe’s paintings are still looked at as feminine since the rouge idea that she was making them about the female anatomy even after all her denials. O’Keefe may have not wanted her paintings to be seen like this, but she was a feminist. O’Keefe was against the gender divide (Ferrier, 2016) which explains why her paintings were not about the female anatomy her standpoint was that her art should have been looked at as a work by an artist and not looked at as a work by a female artist. The knowledge that she was a female allowed for the viewers to assume that there must be femininity within the work.
The next advantage I will be discussing is ‘Being included in revised versions of art history’ In previous times women weren’t allowed to be writers and if they were it was not a best seller so most female artists got lost throughout history as the male wr iters did not feel the need to credit the women. Recently female art historians have been ensuring that everyone who participates towards art history are being written about to secure their place in history without having to revise history to include them. Griselda Pollock is an art historian working towards fixing the history of art and writing the current changes in the 21 st century. Pollock found that women have always been a part of producing art and that before the 20 th century women were included in the history nevertheless during the 20 th century women were excluded from the history. (Pollock, 1983)
Pollock expresses that while women were included in history before the 20 th century they weren’t represent accurately as they still believed in feminine stereotypes.
“So long as a woman refrains from unsexing herself, let her dabble in anything. The woman of genius does not exist. When she does, she is a man” (Pollock, 1983)
This was a statement made by a commentator in the 19 th century, it proves that women were allowed to participate in art but that they weren’t thought of highly when they did as men were the superiors. There has clearly been a drastic change in history to go from allowing women to ‘dabble’ to not allowing them to do anything that was not socially acceptable. From the 19 th to the 21st century it flips backwards and forwards. The uprise of feminist would have been due to the factor that so much would have been taken away and judgements were getting harsher.
Linda Nochlin is another art historian working towards writing women into art history.
In the book ‘Women Artists: The Linda Nochlin Reader’ 30 essays are brought together from Nochlin’s career. The essays range from the 1970s to the 2010s allowing a wide range of different aspects and comparison of women’s art from different time periods. This book contains a level of revision to art histories and also current accurate history in the making. This helps set up a standard to keep women in history without there having to be any revision in the future.
In the segment ‘why have there been no great women artists thirty years later’
Nochlin talks about how she believes that the artists of today do not need to worry about what is great art and what is not, as there is less focus on what makes the work great but instead about the impact, interest and proactiveness about a piece.
(Nochlin and Reilly, 2015)
Art now is so subjective to each person and someone’s work may only resonate with a small percentage of people but with a greater understanding the artists voice will be heard.
‘knowing your career might pick up after you are eighty’ This ‘advantage’ from the Guerilla Girls is something all artists will hear in their lifetime. Becoming an artist comes with risks many of the great artists we still speak about to this day were not privileged to see their work take off on a world -wide setting due to death. It takes years to evolve into a great artist it is not the type of career that can be fast tracked.
Most artists that do gain fame are typically half way through their lifespan and will never see the full extent because of the fact that painting prices increase after an artist dies and the legacy they leave become more cherished. For instance, Louise Bourgeois received her first piece of recognition after her 1982 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. She would have been in her 70s by this time and had been showing her art for decades. Bourgeois had her first solo exhibition in 1945 in New York City but after 1950 there was a decline in in her shows. (McNay, 2010)
The success of the abstract expressionists came along, and Bourgeois could not compete this is why there was such a long break in her work, but with patience she finally made it years later. Although the reason that it took until her later life to gain the recognition, she deserved may have been from the fact she was a women there are many males who have been in this boat too. Vincent Van Gogh for example is a well-known story of an artist who was not appreciated until after death he was fortunate that his sister preserved his work after he died although he will never know how much influence he has on the art community.
Guerilla Girls are correct in saying that there is a chance of not making it until late life for women but more accurately this is one that stands for all artists.
Conclusion
This dissertation set out to investigate whether women are undervalued in the art community. Women for century’s were seen as the object of a painting. They were used for a mans pleasure and allowed for a desirable piece that men as the viewers would appreciate and buy.
Since women were seen as the models for artists the idea that they could be successful was unfathomable. The economic value of women’s art compared to men’s proved that people do not believe they can be as successful as men. The difference between them economically is a current factor that still weighs negatively on women today. If the price of an artwork could be unbiased towards gender, then women would have a stronger platform to stand on to allow them more value. In terms of social society women are gaining traction which will help with their social capital, yet it is still in best interest to gain the male attention in order to contacts within the industry.
With cultural capital since women are able to gain an education, they should be able to build up a strong portfolio like their male counter parts, although gaining spaces in galleries can still be difficult if they haven’t changed their ‘old’ mentality. Th ere are female led galleries and galleries who support feminism which is shedding a light on the fact that women should be allowed into galleries and not decimated against.
Chapter One revealed that there are still some preconceptions that’s exist to this day that will make women seem undervalued, but, in terms of economically women are definitely still undervalued if the market can bridge the gap between men and women’s artwork prices then their work would be seen as valuable and, in turn, they will be valued as artists.
Throughout all the art movements that’s came postwar I found that women were apart of them all, whether or not it was talked about historically, women definitely made an impact here. I looked at a small fraction of women who made an impact on the art of this time eg. Lee Kranser, Janet Sobel, Elaine de Kooning, Pauline Boty, Miriam Schapiro and Georgia O’Keefe. Each woman helped to shape the art we know and see today but they were foreshadowed by the men around them. If art history writers allowed for them to be publicised at the time of the groundbreaking work, then they would’ve been more valued as artists in their lifetime.
Chapter Two allowed for some eye -opening information. Women were major figures on art. The value that women have in shaping art is exponential, if women were not allowed to be artists, then we would not have a lot of the techniques and inspirations that we have today.
The Guerilla Girls proactive poster titled “The Advantages Of Being A Woman Artist” allowed for a great insight to specific barriers that women face as artists. By investigating seven of the different ‘advantages’ I was able to find out how many women have overcome. The poster debuted in 1988 and in over 30 years since a lot over them have been tackled.
By the critical analysis of Frida Kahlo and Jenny Saville I found that Kahlo was an inspiration for Saville and her ideas and style of work live on in other artists work like Saville’s. This proves that a woman artists work can live on in others.
Coming back to historical value I found that many women art historians are working towards rewriting the women that helps shape the history and also are making sure to write about current women artists so that they do not get lost in history again.
Chapter Three provided a clear view of women fighting to be valued as artists. The information allowed me to understand that women have moved forward dramatically
in the 21st century and everyone is allowed to see the value that they bring to the art community.
In conclusion, there are still many aspects of art that women are not valued in especially in an economic view but there are also many aspects that they are valued with. Since we are now in the 21 st century and so much has already changed I believe that women are gaining more value in the arts and are taking their rightful place in history as valued artists.
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