 |
| mixed media object by Ida Brookhart |
We all know that men rule the art market, while women in general must struggle to move up the ladder. We are talking about gender discrimination in the cultural sector against female artists in the market for fine art. It seems a lot easier to be a mediocre but reasonably successful artist if you are a man. Unfortunately it is even in 2017 a different story for women. But if a woman manages to find art-market success, she is likely to be more successful than her male counterparts, researchers found. The women who do manage to make it into the secondary market tend to outperform men once they get there: Yayoi Kusama
Artnet Analytics and Maastricht University note in a joint study that galleries may discriminate because they’re skeptical about emerging female artists’ future success. Dealers may be concerned that a woman will take time off to have children, thereby making her career less reliable than that of a man.
The studies show women also have less access to the social circles that might help them get through the door of a gallery. And if women are not certain they can support themselves through their art they are more likely to pursue alternate career paths.
