Kristin Doner on mon 19 oct 98
Here are a few statistics* that may interest you about women in the arts...
but read the full list of facts to get the full impact:
51.2% of all artists in the US are women
67% of bachelor degrees in Fine Arts go to women
59% of PHDs in Fine Arts go to women
5% of works in museums are by women
17% of works in galleries are by women
7 of 36 one-person museum exhibitions in the '91-'92 New York season
were by women
Women artist's income is 30% that of male artists
42% of $5,000 NEA grants go to women, while
25% of $25,000 NEA grants go to women
In 1995, the Whitney Biennial exhibition featured
55.5% White Male artists
27.7% White Female artists
11.1% Male artists of color
5.5% Female artists of color
Considering the percentages at the beginning of the list, you'd think some
of that would be reflected later in the list.
I can understand why men would feel uncomfortable with discrimination...
women have put up with it for ages, and we aren't anymore. It's not fun to
be on the receiving end. But a simple reality is that the pendulum has to
swing both directions before a middle ground can be found.
Understandably, people of all races and genders want to see artwork of
quality... but please keep in mind that quality, as well as beauty, is in
the eyes of the beholder. You can judge someone else's artwork, but only
from a personal perspective. To judge their expression, you need to BE
that person. If it doesn't have relevance for you individually, fine... move on.
Kristin
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*The statistics listed were compiled by Monica Praba Pilar in 1997 from the
following sources: 1990 Statistical Abstract of the United States;
Eleanor Dickenson, "Gender Discrimination in the Art World," paper prepared
for the College Art Association, Coalition of Women, February 15, 1990, New York
US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1989-90;
Art in America 1991-92; Guerrilla Girls poster, New York, 1991.
Sites on the Web regarding women in the arts:
The Guerrila Girls site is at (I haven't gotten this one to work yet):
http://www.voyagerco.com/gg/gg.html
The LINK page for women on the web, put up
by Amazon.com, a women's world on the net:
http://www.planetamazon.com/start/index.html
Women artists links page:
http://www.tiac.net/users/sojourn/arts.html
-----Original Message-----
From: Darrell Gargus [SMTP:dsg12@home.com]
Sent: Saturday, October 17, 1998 7:22 AM
To: CLAYART@LSV.UKY.EDU
Subject: Re: archaic feminist art
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
donn- i happen to agree with you. a few years ago, the college i went
to, the women got together and decided to have a womens show. the rest
of us asked why? feminist art wasn't really predominate in our school
and not many of us felt discriminated against. they still had the show
with the guidelines of the work having to have some theme of women's
issues being dealt with but most of the work in the show had nothing to
do with oppression of women. i think women do encounter this at times
but no where near as in the past. it is time for women to let this
issue go, i feel like. now it is time for me to get the axe from others
who disagree with me. so now we are in the hot water togther.
becky glasscock
Donn Buchfinck wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Years ago I went to visit Louisiana State university to see If I would want to
> apply there to go to grad school.
>
> Bobby Silverman is great, they have a lot of good things to offer, and kilns
> and clay, they wood fire right in the center of the city, I guess that is
> because the petro chemical companies are producing so much bad stuff that
> anything that might be produced by a wood or soda or salt is minimal by
> comparison, but I digress
>
> there I met with an artist named Kate Black lock, and in her office was these
> forms based on the classic feminine shape.
>
> I personally believe that all good form comes from looking and drawing and
> appreciating naked bodies.
>
> so I was sitting there and I was looking at these forms and near the base of
> the pieces there were these butterflies glazed in this copper red glaze, I
> felt the sybolism to be quite overdone. In our conversations I felt this
> teacher was threatened by the schools I had been to, and did not like the fact
> that I was a man.
>
> I feel that Univerities breed this attitude, that college has a different
> set of rules concering feminism. And that some of the attitudes professed in
> schools do not match up in what I call the real world.
> What I am against is the gorilla warfare practices they undertake in school.
> There is a place for this in the world, I just find it unpleasant and I would
> say that there are other people out there who do also. And at times can create
> more problems than it solves.
>
> In school I found that some women would mine the feminst cause for there
> ceramic work, sometimes crude, sometimes raw, sometimes it would work, but
> most of the time I feel it was done for effect. For that dramatic punch. In
> hiring of new instructors out in the college arena, the feminist based artist
> have a good shtic. It is far easier to explain that the work they are doing
> is about something concreat, historic male oppression of the feminist class.
> Than it is to explain that they are trying to get at something that you
> cannot put words to, like beauty or the sublime, or the harmony of life.
>
> I feel that the colleges out in the USA are out of touch, and this goes for
> the men also. If you leave grad school or undergrad making something that is
> archaic and offensive, you will collect yourself. There is an unsaid non
> truth in school of if you make it they will pay money. For college professors
> that little money thing is beneath them, they call themselves studio artist
> but are subsidized by there part time well paying teaching jobs. And do not
> begin to tell me that what you do is underpaid, high school art teachers are
> underpaid and overworked. They are real teachers.
>
> What my real complaint is, Is not that women do feminist art, but do not begin
> to expect me to accept it, and I would be able to accept it, if most of it was
> done better. And this is the real danger about art in the late 90's, that it
> is more about the written statement than it is about a well executed piece of
> at that communicates it message without the written statement.
>
> A time is comming when a grass roots art movement will pass by the
> universities, because the universities are out of touch, history always
> repeates itself.
>
> well I cannot wait to get the messages back on this one
>
> thanks a lot
>
> Donn " I just stuck my neck out there again" Buchfinck
>
> hey for all you spelling nuts out there I ran the spell check on this one.
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