Claudia DeMonte (1947–)Abundance: Shoes, 2011, Cast bronze, 8.5 × 6 in (21.6 × 15.2 cm)
AN ESSENTIAL BIOLOGICAL DISTINCTION AFFECTS WHO PARTICIPATES IN ART AND HOW
Since the inception of the feminist movement in the 1960s, there has been much discussion about the nature of art made by women and the level of participation of women in art. The basic questions are as follows:
• Is there a difference between the art made by men and women?
• Given that women have been historically underrepresented in the arts, does this show that a male-dominated culture has consistently discounted the qualities or concerns of women’s art? Or does it mean that in their traditional (and biological) roles as mothers, women have not had the time, freedom, and professional access to gain the skills and experience needed to achieve excellence?
• What steps can be taken to increase the representation of women in the arts?
The answer to the first question has been studied in some depth in large-scale studies of children’s drawings. These provide overwhelming evidence that boys and girls consistently display marked differences in drawing and that these are almost entirely content based. Boys tend to draw more active, violent, and machine images, often embracing war. Girls tend to draw more passive activities and choose more natural subjects, such as flowers and landscapes.
While such findings are not disputed, many feminists contend that gender roles are assigned by societal pressure. This view is somewhat undermined by evidence that unsupervised children self-organize into gender groups and that the establishment of gender identity is an important part of socialization. How far childhood differences in art making extend into adulthood is open to question. Certainly the difference is far less marked, if it exists at all. In those few cases where women have achieved major recognition, their art compares in quality and style to the best of their male contemporaries. In her seminal 1971 essay, “Why Are There No Great Women Artists?” Linda Nochlin argues that over the centuries women have not been admitted to the apprenticeships and schooling required to achieve the highest standards of art.
How then to bring more women into the art world? That challenge was taken up by Judy Chicago (1939–), the most prominent feminist artist of the 1970s. While teaching a women-only class at Fresno State College, she opened private studio space for her students and encouraged close cooperation and networking to develop and promote their art. Similarly, many organizations sprang up during the 1970s to promote women’s art. Since then, new generations of female artists have embraced careers in art, but lists of top-selling artists continue to be dominated by men.
Claudia DeMonte (1947–)
Abundance: Shoes, 2011, Cast bronze, 8.5 × 6 in (21.6 × 15.2 cm)
Demonte addresses issues of female fetish in a playful but direct manner.
