Recently, the University of Luxembourg published a study on the behavior of the art market. Price comparisons indicate that women’s works are sold 47.6 percent lower than men’s according to the research. So bearing the name of a woman’s name sells less when it comes to negotiating in the artistic field.
The study was titled: Is gender in the eye of the beholder? Identifying cultural attitudes with art auction prices and was led by the economist Roman Kräussl.
The sample was represented by a thousand people who had to guess the gender of the author of a work, and also had to rate it from 1 to 10. Another sample of two thousand people had a similar exercise, but this time they were works made by artificial intelligence.
In both cases, works authored by a woman received the lowest ratings.
Cultural prejudices, male hegemony among collectors, and the strength of a market that does not pay attention to art but to the balance of power, establish the limits between one and the other, provoking the question. Is art made by women inferior? Does wearing a woman’s name sell less in the art market?
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Recognition, Visibility and Sales
The cultural sphere and its entire framework is also a matter of power, basically economic, financial and patriarchal power. Art made by women and men is equally exposed to this dynamic controlled by money, but without a doubt bearing a woman’s name sells less.
The prizes, exhibition spaces, as well as parity in the selection of the juries of the contests are some of the essential claims to achieve balance. The most frequent attitude of a collector, in short art buyers, varies a lot between a work signed by a man or a woman. Hence the difference between sales volumes and prices.
CARRYING A WOMAN’S NAME SELL LESS
In the article published by elpais.com: Who rules the art world?; the opinion of two gallery owners is illuminating in light of what is happening. Alex Nogueras and Rebeca Blanchar. “ …the market is controlling the most influential events in the art world, creating confusion in the way we perceive fairs, biennials and exhibitions in the great museums. The underfunding of these public places has been used by large art corporations to influence programming. The curators face the dilemma of deciding which artists to choose, whether they prioritize those who come with funding or those who really interest them.
Understanding it this way, the equation returns to negative numbers for women within this system. The sale of works made by women is considerably lower than that of men. The data provided annually by Artprice (the top 100. 2019) are eloquent on this subject.
The roles given to women in the cultural and artistic field, more as an object than as a creator, have perpetuated the difference in opportunities.
Parity in the governing bodies of museums. The balance between genders within the market, as well as in the exhibitions, are some of the claims referred to in the article Parity, the unfinished business of contemporary art in cincodias.elpais.com.
Among other data and statistics, it refers to the volume of sales and clearly unbalanced prices among the works carried out by women. “For the artist and doctor of Fine Arts Marina Núñez, the reality of the market is a reflection of the lack of visibility that women in the plastic arts have. If they are not awarded or exhibited in galleries at the same level as men, collectors do not trust the value of the work, that is why pieces created by women are cheaper…”
In the Gender and Economy Blog, the subject is also addressed, referring to the notorious gaps between artists. In the article of April 17, 2019, its author María Álvarez explains. “One of the greatest possibilities that artists have to achieve notoriety, give visibility to their work and obtain sales, is to participate in the many contemporary art fairs that are held temporarily in various places. One of the most important is ARCO Madrid, according to MAV, Women in Visual Arts organization, in 2018 the 3 exhibitions curated by said fair were exclusively managed by women for the first time, even so, only 25% of the works exhibited in them they belonged to women and only 5% to Spanish artists.”
Of everything I’ve reviewed on this subject, what terrifies me the most is the certainty of seeing how this imbalance controls the perception of users and ultimately human beings. A few decide what to buy, from whom and at what price to value art based on gender. But many more reproduce this discriminatory behavior in their assessments.
Social policies and legislation are undoubtedly urgent, but education and culture are even more so as true tools for the liberation of consciences.
Other links of interest:
Artists ignored for being a woman
Audiovisual Production: Leyanes Yanes
Images used during the video.
Authorship: Image by Andrew Tan at Pixabay / Image by SH Kim at Pixabay / Image by T Thomas at Pixabay / Image by Tracey Wong at Pixabay / Image by yuri hwang at Pixabay / Free Images Wikipedia
Music: Filmora Library
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