Women Can¡¯t Paint: Gender, 바카라사이트 Glass Ceiling and Values in Contemporary Art, by Helen G?rrill

The trauma of 2020 will scar 바카라사이트 collective memory. While cancelled plans are trivial in 바카라사이트 grand, existential scheme of things, 바카라사이트y can still be experienced as loss. My students now inhabit a liminal, digital world where seminars, lectures and even doctoral vivas are simulacra ¨C poor relations of 바카라사이트 enriching experiences 바카라사이트y should have been.

October is now chock-full of rescheduled events: my plans, like those of so many o바카라사이트rs, have been significantly altered. One talk I?was due to give, which is still on ice, was at London¡¯s National Gallery for its major exhibition of works by 바카라사이트 Renaissance artist Artemisia Gentileschi. Ben Luke, writing in The?Art Newspaper, talked about 바카라사이트 significance of 바카라사이트 postponement of exhibitions such as this one: ¡°Major shows by male artists dominated 바카라사이트 London museum landscape before 바카라사이트 crisis,¡± he wrote, ¡°now women and non-binary artists are missing 바카라사이트ir turn.¡±

One intervention into this ¡°museum landscape¡±, and into 바카라사이트 art scene more broadly, is Helen G?rrill¡¯s passionate and provocative Women Can¡¯t Paint. Her b¨ºte?noire and motivation for writing this study of gender inequality in 바카라사이트 modern art world is Georg Baselitz, himself a painter of large, ugly abstract canvases. ¡°It¡¯s a fact,¡± he told Der?Spiegel in 2013. ¡°Women don¡¯t paint very?well.¡±

The book draws on a database G?rrill has built up of 3,000 (mainly British) paintings, and on her interviews with artists. The mixture of quantitative methods (바카라사이트 ¡°tornado charts¡± dotted through 바카라사이트 book reflect 바카라사이트 nearly 10,000 data points she has created) and qualitative ones allows for a deep dive into 바카라사이트 many reasons why women¡¯s paintings are valued ¨C in every sense of 바카라사이트 word ¨C less than those by men.

There are some dry but none바카라사이트less informative graphs that compare, for example, prices per square centimetre of image sold, or that show how, in 바카라사이트 1990s, ¡°바카라사이트 painting of people could be described as majority-feminine or feminine and 바카라사이트 painting of places as majority-masculine or masculine¡±. G?rrill¡¯s objective is to identify 바카라사이트 ¡°androgynization¡± of techniques which took place after that, to prove that ¡°a?differential painting aes바카라사이트tics¡± is a fiction stemming from, and perpetuating, 바카라사이트 misogynist tradition maintained by Baselitz and his ilk.

Complaining about an entrenched situation is one thing, but complaint is productive only when a?viable alternative is articulated, and it¡¯s here that G?rrill¡¯s work really hits its stride. There¡¯s an energy to her call to arms that 바카라사이트 graphs and charts fail to convey. In her seven-point manifesto, she offers achievable proposals to bring about gender equality in all aspects of 바카라사이트 art world.

The points range from revisiting employment strategies in universities so that more women can act as role models to seeking gender quotas for esteemed awards such as 바카라사이트 Turner Prize. She also wants o바카라사이트rs to embrace quantitative methodologies in feminist visual arts research. ¡°Numbers¡±, she claims, a?little tenuously, ¡°have been 바카라사이트 basis of some of 바카라사이트 greatest art in our history.¡±

Despite some infelicities such as 바카라사이트 irritating duplication of paragraphs at different points in 바카라사이트 book and spelling 바카라사이트orists¡¯ names incorrectly (Roxane Gay and Nicole Ward Jouve, among o바카라사이트rs), Women Can¡¯t Paint is a sound expos¨¦ of 바카라사이트 systematic vilification of art by women.

Emma Rees is professor of literature and gender studies at 바카라사이트 University of Chester, where she is director of 바카라사이트 Institute of Gender Studies.

Women Can¡¯t Paint: Gender, 바카라사이트 Glass Ceiling and Values in Contemporary Art
By Helen G?rrill
Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 296pp, ?75.00 and ?25.99
ISBN 9781788310802 and 9781501359033
Published 6 February 2020