Camille Morineau, AWARE (Archives of Women Artists Research and Exhibitions) spoke about the need to disrupt the canon of male oriented art history. Good works starting to be done e.g. Tate Room that juxtaposes Warhol and Guerrilla Girls. There is a role for feminism in collecting (i.e. gathering and giving meaning to) art, and collecting information.
Curators at museums inherit a collection and either have to make the best of it, or bluff. We now need to reconstruct history for women as the hand of cards have changed. Women now need to be represented.
CM put on an exhibition of Garbo Schor - contacted her to buy 1970s work for a retrospective. Her work had never fitted an 'art category' therefore no demand and when she was selling to CM, her prices were too low. CM created a specific category Feminist Avant Garde. In 1970s Male gallery owners were dismissive of doing solo shows for women - e.g. comment to Margaret Harrison (of Homeworkers fame) "Why should you have a show? You're married anyway!"
Iwona Blazwick, Director Whitechapel Gallery
Importance of permanent collections and our (women's) work in them. Feminist forms were difficult to collect - excluded from painting and sculpture for many years, so v little available to collect. However in 1970s when Avant Garde started to use photography and performance -the lens and film became important to feminists. Feminists started to intervene in an institution and a collection. Whitechapel uses guest collections which enables access to worldwide collections.
IB invited Cornelia Parker to use the Government Art Collection - Tudor to modern times. Exhibited at Whitechapel 2011. Richard of York Gave Battle In Vain. Portraits from all ages ranged round room, so significant people faced each other, and colours moved around the rainbow, around the room. There were staged hierarchies of power within it.
Curating is a performance. Now they are commissioning to collect. Many missing histories. Feminism used to be for a bourgeoise elite. Bluestockings -v- trade union movement. Now Whitechapel realises they need to use social media for young women in the area.
When Guerrilla Girls were using the Twitter feed, at the start of their exhibition (Nov 2016) they achieved 200,000 retweets. Second in the world, after Donald Trump!!
What gets shown at a gallery, depends on who is directing the museum. Whitechapel publications - art history will show 50/50 men/women. Once this decision is made, editors will rise always rise to the challenge. This is a really bold move. This is the first time I have heard of a Museum clearly giving an equal target - previously large organisations have fiercely resisted quotas. Key finding.
Also, let people take photos. They will anyway. View it as free publicity, with the benefit that it leads to deeper research.
Susan Fisher Sterling. National Museum of Women in Art. USA
3/4 of handprints in cave art are made by women. Shift in cultural thinking. Joint or separate museums for gender Must we choose? Do both. 19-25% of USA solo exhibitions are female.
Get away from chronology - this reduces the representation of women and ethnic minorities. Women need to drive this discourse.
Anne Gallagher, Tate.
Tate has 4 sites, 1 collection. Running costs are 30% Government funding, 70% self funded. What they show/collect complements other galleries in UK. Currently has a European/west european/US bias. Tring to make international. Bring in international, and more diverse media - photography, film and video. British collection has few women. In British Museums, Whitechapel and Camden Arts Centre show women more than any other museum. Tate to prioritise women. First female gift received from Janet Wolfson the Botton. They aim to get women artists from all periods. Currently collecting the repeatedly overlooked.
Look at Paul Mellon Still Invisible.
No comments:
Post a Comment