So, if you’re thinking about buying a piece of art to put under the Christmas tree this year, consider investing in the work of a woman. Why? Well, because women’s art is lagging far behind in the market. But! Thankfully, things are changing. Here are some interesting takeaways from the radio show:
Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, painting by Georgia O’Keeffe;
the most expensive painting by a female artist ever sold at auction.
So, let's start out talking numbers. How much - or how little - is art by women worth?
Pay gap
Today, the show tells us, the prices for women’s art sold at auctions are shockingly lower than that of men. For example, the world record for a painting by a man sold at auction is a staggering $450 million (Leonardo da Vinci). In contrast, the world record for a piece by a woman sold at auction is a mere $44.4 million (Georgia O’Keeffe).
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If we look at the contemporary art scene, the situation is pretty much the same: the record for a living artist goes to Jeff Koons, who sold a painting for $91 million, while the female record goes to Jenny Saville, who sold a piece for $12.5 million.
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And if you look at the art market as a whole, you’ll see that, on average, women artists earn only 10% of what their male colleagues earn. Conclusion: female art is just not at the top end.
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But why? Are works by women simply not as good as work by men?
Renée B. Adams, Professor of Finance at Oxford University,
lead author of the study: Is gender in the eye of the beholder?
Quality
Renée B. Adams, Professor of Finance at Oxford University, has tried to test this statement. She and her colleagues conducted an experiment. They set up a studio with five paintings by women and five by men, but the participants were not told who painted them.
Then they were asked, "How much do you like the paintings?” and “Who do you think painted it - a man or a woman?”
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Most participants guessed that men painted the paintings. But quite often, they couldn’t tell which gender the artist held.
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In a second experiment, Adams and her colleagues created some paintings with AI. Then, they assigned male and female artists' names to the paintings. In different setups, the same painting could be presented as made by a male artist or a female artist. The participants were asked how they liked the paintings, and the result was that participants who often attended art galleries and museums showed a preference for the male artist names. I.e., the more people were interested in and knew about art, the less value they put on the art made by women.
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This statement had nothing to do with quality since, as we know, the participants didn’t know whether they were looking at art created by a man or a woman - or, more accurately, by AI.
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The experiment fits well with another analysis mentioned in the programme. It found that when men sign a piece of art, it goes up in value compared to a painting that isn’t signed. But when a woman signs a work, its value goes down.
How on earth have we got here?
Frida Kahlo.
Patriarchy
“Once you begin to understand the mechanics and the structures that underpin people’s careers, you begin to understand how women progressively have been denied access to the top table,” Frances Morris, director of Tate Modern, explains. “For instance”, she says, “who did Tate look to for guidance when it started buying international art in the early 20th century? It looked to institutions that were built according to convention and history, and convention and history were, of course, framed by patriarchy. So the dice were loaded against artists who, for all sorts of reason, sat outside those conventions - like the women.”
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This history of lack of opportunities for female artists continues to shape how young students today learn about art and the value of women, we are told. Gombrich’s ‘The Story of Art’ is a clear example of this. It’s the world’s best-selling art history book and the main book people are asked to look at when studying art. It's 420 pages long, and there’s only one - one! - female artist represented.
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Where is Frida Kahlo? Or Georgia O’Keeffe?
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However, no matter how depressing these numbers may sound, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
The Luna(tic) Effect, painting by Jadé Fadojutimi, 2020.
Women artists on the rise
Across the world, a powerful trend is emerging as both galleries and art museums are increasingly investing in women. At Sotheby’s NY, the prestigious ‘The Now’ sale is a testament to this shift. ‘The Now’ represents what’s currently in vogue, a glamorous platform where significant prices are achieved. In 2021, a remarkable 60% of the artists featured in the sale were women, a clear sign of the growing empowerment of female artists in the art world.
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Also, we see that some art museums are selling their work by men so that they can buy more from women while others are setting themselves targets. Such as The Scottish National Gallery, which collects 55% of female artists every year rather than 30%, which it did before.
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These initiatives have to be seen in a larger picture, we are told. Within the last few years, there have become more and more female curators, writers, and gallerists. Having key women in power in the art world helps a great deal when it comes to investing in female artists.
Valeria Napoleone in front of Birth of the Universe #33 by Judith Bernstein, 2014.
An example of a woman in power is the Italian Valeria Napoleone. She owns a five-story collection in London packed with all-female art. And she’s very active in promoting female artists. She buys work, she networks, she fundraises, and her philanthropic project “XX” is helping reshape Britain's art galleries. Every year, she says, she donates works by female artists to British art museums - a different museum every year. When giving voices to the artists, the art collectors come, she says.
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So, does this increasing interest in female art rub off on the price of women’s art?
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Figures show that the prices of top female artists - living and dead - are rising and making new records. Recent examples of young female artists selling their art for very high prices at auctions are Jadé Fadojutimi and Sarah Hughes.
The Kiss, Sarah Hughes, 2023.
In general, prices for women are rising faster than for men at the moment - 29% faster, to be more exact - although they start at a lower level. However, there’s still a long way to go before female artists earn just as much as their male colleagues. But at least it seems we’re moving in the right direction.
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So, perhaps you should consider buying that piece of female art for yourself rather than putting it under the Christmas tree as a present - and, possibly, sell it within a few years at a much higher price. Or you could buy it and keep it because it simply is excellent art.
A Christmas Carol
“Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it, and Scrooge’s name was good upon change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.” There is no December without Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol.” This excellent version is narrated by the one and only Miriam Margolyes.
Thanks for reading!
Until next time - Majken xx
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