Art History: A very short introduction Chapter 5 Reading Summery

In the fifth chapter of Art Theory: A Very Short Introduction, author Cynthia Freeland discusses gender in art and how women in the art world are under minded and underappreciated. At the beginning of this chapter Freeland talks about an female art movement called Guerilla Girls. The Guerrilla Girls propaganda includes stickers and posters with statements and facts about the inequality when it comes to female artists who create art that is of the same caliber as artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Rembrandt. One of the GG’s most infamous statements was a billboard sized poster with the statement “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museun? Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female.” (Page 84) The Girl’s were notorious for exposing the double standards that were hidden on the surface in the art world. Other feminine art figures are mentioned in this chapter such as Artemisia Gentileschi who are categorized as ‘cannon’ artists. These artists are people who made a big impact in the art world, these people are considered ‘geniuses’ for their work. The most commonly recognised ‘canons’ in the art world are Michelangelo, Picasso, and David. But even the women ‘cannons’ in the art world aren’t even as big as these male artists. Artemisia was a bold artist that created works of art depicting women in power and even beheading the heads of men.

The claims that Freeland makes in this chapter is; women are undermined and shot down in the art world, art is very much male dominated. H.W. Janson’s History of Art book was lampooned by the Guerilla Girls with their version titled History of Mostly Male Art. It takes a lot for a women to break through and be noticed in art. The standard of what is considered ‘good’ art by the average person or art critic was cultivated by male artists. For a women to try and raise the bar is rather difficult for her because of how much criticism and attacks they face just from creating art that gets attention. In the history of America and society in general, women were always associated with being ‘weak’ and less powerful than men. Inequality in gender has been the reason why female paintings have rarely been put on the same pedestal as Picasso and Warhol.

A quote that stuck out to me in this chapter was on page 85, paragraph one. “more than 60 female and minority artists and told the art buyer that he could have acquired one from each for the $17.7 million spent on a Jasper Johns painting.” This stuck out to me a lot because this goes to show how female and minority art is valued in today's world of art. It bothers me just how unfair this is.

Some questions what came into my head after reading this chapter were; what could be done in today’s society to ‘even the playing field’ for women and minorities in art? Can something be done outside of art to bring gender equality to society for the purpose of turning the heads of male-centric art critics and collectors? Are people turned off by female artists because of the content of their art? or because that it was a women that created it?

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