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The reasoning here seems specious. My mother is an amateur artist who has presented her work at local art galleries and spaces as exhibitions and sold lithograp

The reasoning here seems specious. My mother is an amateur artist who has presented her work at local art galleries and spaces as exhibitions and sold lithographs made from some of the pieces. She was welcomed by some and warned by others, mostly weird men who didn’t like her art, and others who said she wasn’t allowed to make that kind of art and attempted to take it down until my mother made clear she would not comply and would resist with force if necessary, after which they relented. It was quite bizarre. I’m reasonably certain that this would not have happened had she been a man. I think a lot of women in art and other fields experience sexism in the course of their careers from customers/clients and vendors. I don’t know if that is factored in to how hard you think it is to make it in art as a woman, but men are a reason more women aren’t making and showing art. I think it depends on the scene you’re in and who has the power.

badc0ffee 1y ago
All I have visibility into is the public galleries, where the grants and the curators are picking women, and the artist run centres, and the local art school, both of which are female and/or indigenous and/or queer first in the past decade. You're right that things are different at private galleries. The majority of art in galleries representing artists decades into their career is not going to be by women. And the owners are going to have their say/taste, as are their clientele. But, will that still be true in the coming decades? There is a pipeline to becoming an established artist, and what is the input to that, if not the art schools, collectives, and artist run centres? (I am not asking that rhetorically, I am genuinely curious)
atmavatar 1y ago
> I’m reasonably certain that this would not have happened had she been a man. Out of curiosity: what specifically leads you to make this claim? I don't necessarily doubt the claim, but your story up to this point could describe any budding artist trying to get recognized, as only a tiny of fraction of them do.
- aspenmayer 1y ago
  It’s not a story. It’s my mom’s life. If she’d been a man, I wouldn’t be here telling you about it. My mom was not successful as an artist, she just liked making art. She wanted to go to art school but got pregnant and was pretty much asked/forced to drop out of high school a month before graduating. The content of the art perhaps brought out the crazy people? Her art depicted her alien abduction experiences, and the guy she had to ward off intimated that he was some kind of g-man but who can say?

badc0ffee 1y ago

All I have visibility into is the public galleries, where the grants and the curators are picking women, and the artist run centres, and the local art school, both of which are female and/or indigenous and/or queer first in the past decade. You're right that things are different at private galleries. The majority of art in galleries representing artists decades into their career is not going to be by women. And the owners are going to have their say/taste, as are their clientele. But, will that still be true in the coming decades? There is a pipeline to becoming an established artist, and what is the input to that, if not the art schools, collectives, and artist run centres? (I am not asking that rhetorically, I am genuinely curious)

atmavatar 1y ago

> I’m reasonably certain that this would not have happened had she been a man. Out of curiosity: what specifically leads you to make this claim? I don't necessarily doubt the claim, but your story up to this point could describe any budding artist trying to get recognized, as only a tiny of fraction of them do.

aspenmayer 1y ago
It’s not a story. It’s my mom’s life. If she’d been a man, I wouldn’t be here telling you about it. My mom was not successful as an artist, she just liked making art. She wanted to go to art school but got pregnant and was pretty much asked/forced to drop out of high school a month before graduating. The content of the art perhaps brought out the crazy people? Her art depicted her alien abduction experiences, and the guy she had to ward off intimated that he was some kind of g-man but who can say?