So says art critic Brian Sewell in the UK's Independent:
"The art market is not sexist," Mr Sewell said. "The likes of Bridget Riley and Louise Bourgeois are of the second and third rank. There has never been a first-rank woman artist.
"Only men are capable of aesthetic greatness. Women make up 50 per cent or more of classes at art school. Yet they fade away in their late 20s or 30s. Maybe it's something to do with bearing children."
This, just a paragraph after name-checking Artemisia Gentilleschi, widely regarded by her male contemporaries as one of the great painters of the 17th century.
Riiight, Mr. Sewell. It has everything to do with our uteruses, and nothing to do with men being the majority of art critics, art investors, art dealers and auction house managers. Please go suck on a lead paint-filled brush.
Pieces by male artists regularly go for tens of millions of dollars. By contrast, Marlene Dumas became the most expensive living woman artist at auction 2 weeks ago when her work The Visitor sold for £3.2m at Sotheby's (roughly $6.4 million).
The Russian artist Natalia Goncharova holds the record for the most expensive female artist sold at auction, with her Les Fleurs selling for £5.5 million. Yet this pales in comparison with the £43m made by British male artist Francis Bacon's "Triptych, 1976" in May – the most expensive piece of contemporary art sold at auction to date.
Nope, no sexism in the art world. Never mind the fact that works by Mary Cassatt are dismissed for containing subject matter that is "domestic" (i.e., important to women of her time) or that Georgia O'Keefe's stunning paitings were sniffed at because they dared resemble female genitalia. Because, y'know, male-produced art never resembles male genitalia, right? Read the rest of the article <a href=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/features/theres-never-been-a-great-woman-artist-860865.html>here.</a> Meanwhile, I and the rest of the fabulous female artists on my blogroll will go back to making beauty in the world.
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I also commented on the post about this that was on the main page. But AS a female artist, I feel very strongly about this. And I'll reiterate that there are a slew of male artists who were married to equally talented (in some cases, more so) women who have become marginalized and ignored in favor of their husbands. For instance, some art historians will tell you that Lee Krasner was actually more talented than husband, Jackson Pollack.
I even had a female art history professor, who, when we did a unit on European impressionism and someone asked why we didn't discuss Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot said it was because they "weren't significant to the movement at the time".
WTF????
This is so frustrating. I also encountered this viewpoint in studying classical music. Luckily I had a handful of great female professors who gave the women composers their due credit, but it was frequent that I would get people undermining the value that females brought to the table.
And yes, it's absolutely ridiculous for someone to say that the women haven't contributed as much. We should have moved past the point when we think like that. It's a shame.