The Fight for Equal Representation in the Art Industry

Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh are world famous names, but female artists like Artemisia Gentileschi, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassat are widely less recognized.

Despite their monumental work, female artists are consistently overshadowed by their male counterparts.

According to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, “women have never been treated equally in the art world.” Historically, females have been highly discouraged from entering the visual art industry.

Esther Bell, art exhibition coordinator, told news.artnet.com that “women were systematically excluded from the structures that could train them.” It was not until the late 19th century that women were able to take formal classes and enroll in art academies.

Two centuries later, female artists have continued to deal with underrepresentation.

A data analysis released by the Museum of Women in the Arts found that 18 major U.S. art museum collections are made up of 87 percent male artwork. Ironically, Nine Dot Art published a study that found 51 percent of visual artists to be women.

While women hold an equal presence in the industry, it remains a male-dominated field, specifically in traditional forms of media such as, painting, sculptures and mosaics.

In the 1960s, a feminist art movement emerged in hopes to “influence cultural attitudes and transform stereotypes,” American artist Suzanne Lacy told The Art Story. Female artists used alternative materials from those heavily used by men, such as textiles, performance and videos. These non-traditional forms of media helped “to expand the definition of fine art, and incorporate a wider variety of artistic perspective,” according to The Art Story.

Sydney Dron, a student in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, said that these stereotypes still exist.

“I have been misinterpreted in the creative world countless times [...] society expects women to create ‘the pretty things’.”

On a typical day Dron works on creative briefing, web design coding and motion graphics. “It is far from painting still lifes of fruit bowls and flowers.”

The Art Review’s Power 100 list of “the most influential people in the contemporary art world” was made up of 40 percent women in 2018. The number of women on this list has gradually improved throughout the years.

However, Allie Ophardt, an acrylic and gouache artist local to Arizona, realized early on in her art career that her work “will always be looked at through the lens that- I am a woman.”

Ophart referenced Georgia O’Keeffe, a female artist who has been widely misinterpreted by art critics. They interpret her “pieces as symbolizing a vagina when she repeated that she was just painting flowers.”

Ophart hopes to give “voices to people and struggles that are largely ignored by people in an overstimulated world,” through her art but fears that it will “always be viewed as commenting on femininity” and her real messages will get lost, she said.

Ophart struggles with imposter syndrome and often thinks her work “isn’t good enough to share,” she said. “My male peers are far more confident in putting out their work, no matter how mediocre it is.”

Brandon Berry, multimedia artist and owner of Class Photo Arizona, stated that “people draw from their lived experiences, and because of that, there can be a difference in how men and women express their everyday lives through art.”

Ophart disagreed.

“Style isn’t affected by gender,” she said.

Yet, “research shows that women art workers earn an average of $20,000 less per year than men,” Rebecca Wilson, author at Observer.com wrote.

Woman “are only getting one-third as many opportunities to display their art in museums,” as men, Wilson said.

Until art becomes a form of communication that contains no female or male identity, women will continue to challenge stereotypes and fight for equal representation within the industry.