Women in Art

Women in Art is not a very common thing to see unless you are talking about the model in which you are gazing upon in the hundreds of paintings made by men. A great and very popular woman artist is just about as common as a blue moon; one comes around every few years. As an art major and a fellow woman artist, it's even hard to name popular women artists myself, and those that I can name, a common individual who isn't strongly interested in art, nine times out of ten wouldn't even recognize the artist. 

Artists such as Mary Cassat, Berthe Morisot, Cindy Sherman, Tracey Emin, Georgia O'Keefe, Dorthea Lange, Louise Bourgeois, Helen Frankenthaler, Frida Kahlo, Lee Krasner, Barbara Hepworth, Joan Mitchell, Jenny Saville, Judy Chicago, and Kara Walker, may all be contemporary and historical artists that I am familiar with, but it would be pure luck if a common person could say that they knew two names out these fifteen “great” women artists. It's also sad to say that I hardly know of many great women artists, and maybe there are many out there, but my point is that they are not talked about. It's hard to find them in the media and they are not as prominent and well known as some of the most popular male artists of all time. Almost anyone would recognize artists such as: Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dali, Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and Picasso. 

Women have been struggling in art ever since art became art, something to view and analyze. Back in 1768 the British Royal Academy of art was introduced, and believe it or not, was founded by two women painters by the names of Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser. Although this is a big feat for women in art, following Kauffman and Moser, no woman was allowed membership to the Academy again until 1922. While Kauffman and Moser had a big accomplishment founding the academy, there was still a problem because they were not recognized as members except for on paper. When paintings were created of the members of the academy, Kauffman and Moser were not included and they were also banned from the study of the nude model as well for any of their work. This then became the basis of training and representation from the sixteenth century until the nineteenth century (Chadwick, 7). 

There always seems to be a reoccurring theme in the art world; women always hold the positions of art directors for galleries, or they are the founders of the academies, but they are very rarely considered to be the “great artist” in which we all drool over the piece that they have just created. Maybe there are no great women artists because it is the women who are too busy setting up every opportunity for the men to be successful.