Untitled Film Still by Cindy Sherman

In the Artscape doco we watched earlier this week, the presenter mentioned some interesting tidbits regarding gender equality in the contemporary art world. He stated that 9 out 10 ten art students are women, but less than half of artists who have representation with a gallery are women. Oddly, however, most gallery directors and agents are women.

I decided this garnered some looking into for this week’s blog post.

92% of artist at New York evening auctions are male. Not only that, but work by male artists sell for more money. The combined value of women’s work in the New York auctions only accounts for 3% of the sales.

There are a few women who have achieved success in the art word – women like Tracey Emin and Cindy Sherman. Yet it still seems like the history of art is being written by white men. Almost all of the world’s highest earning artists are male, and similar things can be said about the highest earning jobs and most powerful positions, which are all held by men. Women are grossly underrepresented in Australian government, comprising less than a third of all parliamentarians.

Connie Butler, chief curator at the Hammer museum in Los Angeles, which showed an almost equal ratio of men and women in 2015, declared a “cultural shift” needs to take place, but, despite this being desperately overdue, it might be a long time until men and women are equally represented in the contemporary art world.

Articles sourced:

Hannah Gorashi, Inequality Endures: The Price of Being a Female Artist in 2015, <http://www.artnews.com/2015/12/30/women-art-status-in-2015/>, Accessed 28/7/16

Editors of ArtNews, Are the November Postwar and Contemporary Auctions a Boy’s Club?, <http://www.artnews.com/2015/10/24/november-postwar-contemporary-auctions-boys-club/>, Accessed 28/8/16