RSS feedA Look at Art and Gender
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| The Negro Woman Series, Elizabeth Catlett © Howard Museum Collection |
When I went to browse the Living Library for Table of Free Voices questions related to gender for this post, I found it interesting that only two out of 100 questions dealt with women’s issues.
Saltz calls the dilemma a “pernicious double bind,” providing a list of the percentages of women participants at recent MOMA and Guggenheim shows.
Unconvinced that art shows should be regulated by quotas, Saltz feels that something should be done to break the cycle of self-replicating bias. The article only offers the suggestion of noticing the bias, but concludes that the situation is a crisis:
“…whatever we call this struggle, it needs to be seen as a failure of the imagination that amounts to apartheid. We all have to feel threatened by the bias. We must see it as a moral emergency. Having mainly men show means that more than half the story is going untold. Whatever story women tell will be told in ways it never has before. If we don’t remove the taboo against women, the story could eventually die. “
To hear what Table of Free Voices participants had to say about gender issues, click through to the Living Library to listen to their answers.
Ramazon Keskin, 34, Cologne, Germany: Why are women still in a disadvantage?
David Woolfson, 52, Toronto, Canada: How can human society be in balance and harmony when there are so few women in positions of power and feminine values are so minimized in all areas?