“They asked me where the director was.” The situation of women in art

“It is something that had to happen as a result of the serious and continuous efforts that have been made during the last decades from the historiography of art, artistic criticism… In the case of the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum it is something that already has certain time travel with programming monographic exhibitions on women artists in the collection, such as the one dedicated to Berthe Morisot in 2011, to Sonia Delaunay in 2017 or to Georgia O’Keeffe in 2021″, he explains.

Courtesy

Remember that recently the museum has had the great exhibition ‘Maestras’ and the monograph on Isabel Quintanillawhich was the first exhibition that the museum dedicates to a Spanish artist in its thirty years of existence. “In parallel, the Museum develops other actions from the gender perspective such as the KORA program, with its small format exhibitions on contemporary women artists“he adds.

It is important, if we reflect today’s society, to serve half of the population, give them a voice and listen.

Natalia Álvarez Simó, artistic director of Condeduque, points out that when shaping the poster, they try to have always in mind the importance of giving place to women, but not as an exact number, but as a focus of attention. “It is important, if we reflect today’s society, serve half the populationgive voice and listen. Let us not forget that the first step is to make room and for them to be on an equal footing, but this must be accompanied by a social change, where women, for example, do not give up embarking on artistic careers for motherhood“, he assures.

No colleague has been asked how they can lead and have children

In more than one interview he has acknowledged that in his daily life he encounters the glass ceiling. “From my experience, while I stayed in intermediate positions, I was not aware that I was a woman, so it was a surprise when I got to management. Suddenly, the catalog of terms that I was starting to read in books about feminism I was living it. They asked me, “where is the director?”, they explained to me how I had to do my job or they asked me the eternal question of how could I lead and have a daughter. I have never seen that question asked of my colleagues,” he responds when we ask him for an example.

The obstacles of women in art

The art sector in Spain, according to the report ‘In the hands of women. Study on the international visibility of contemporary spanish art through the women who generate it’, presented by the Institute of Contemporary Art (IAC) and dating from 2023, continues to be masculinized. After examining 110 galleries from 13 autonomous communities, the analysis indicates that 38.9% of the artists represented in the country’s art galleries are Spanish men; 30.8% foreign men; 18.2% Spanish women; and 9.9%, foreign women. However, as we can see, a firm change is being fought for. But what obstacles do artists continue to encounter in the universe of art and culture in the middle of 2024?

Despite being reference and consolidated figures, the names of many artists do not say anything to the general public.

“If, as in the case of the Thyssen Museum, we talk about women artists who have played an important role in the history of artthe first barrier we encounter is that their names in many cases do not say anything to the general public, despite being reference and consolidated figures, and Therefore, they require greater effort when presenting and making them known.. For example, this is the case of Gabriele Münter, the protagonist of our next major exhibition. Although at first she is not a name known to our visitors, it will undoubtedly be word of mouth that confirms the value of the project and places this great German painter in the place she deserves for the Spanish public,” says Leticia de Cos.

It indicates that the fact that we are seeing this moment of intensification of programming with female artists by many institutions makes obtaining works from some of them highly complicated, as may be the case of Artemisia Gentileschi or Clara Peters, when until not long ago, they were not exposed to the public, nor were they barely mentioned in manuals.

“Although women are increasingly in all sectors of the world of art and culture, there is indeed a great difference in numbers between men and women in certain fields, since there are professions that have been predominantly female, while others have been traditionally masculine. And this is a reflection of the reproduction of gender roles that we have in our society,” explains Natalia Álvarez Simó.

In the intermediate positions, they are all women; in the directions, that changes

“The woman is taking the spaces of power little by little and taking its voice in art, but structures continue to be maintained, the difficult accessibility of women to senior positions or management positions. We continue to see in cultural institutions, museums, theaters, cultural centers, etc., that the intermediate positions are all women, but in management, that changes,” he says.