This letter and response was recently posted in Robert Genn's art blog:
"Dear Artist,
"This morning Suzanne Lee wrote: 'In a recent group exhibition in which I had participated, it appeared that the men were taken more seriously as artists than the women. More value was put on their work in terms of prices paid. This hit a nerve for me, and upset my idealistic notion that the art world was devoid of these sorts of attitudes. I'm hoping I'm just being oversensitive and a little paranoid, but I fear that I will have to work twice as hard and produce twice the quantity to be equally respected. Please tell me I'm wrong?'
"Thanks, Suzanne. Unfortunately, you're not being paranoid. The uneven playing field has been with us for some time. Just when I think things are improving for women, I see setbacks. In art, where taste can be arbitrary and buyers don't have a lot of confidence, the old shibboleths of safety, male superiority and ego-force kick in. Just as it's going to be a while before a nun gets to be a pope, the powers-at-be are at work.
"Women artists need to fight it and men artists need to back them. Charlotte Whitten, the former mayor of Ottawa, notably said, 'Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.' That's the spirit women need. Fact is, women painters currently outnumber men four to one. Check out the ratio in any art club. One could say that women are naturally creative and naturally bicameral. In my limited experience with women, they seem to also take advice, network well, and are in touch with their emotions.
"That being said, I was recently asked to support a group show exclusve to women. While the motives for this sort of thing may be noble and temporarily empowering, I don't buy it. I don't support anything that discriminates by age, race or gender. If someone invited me to support a show for men only, I wouldn't. I want to live blind to all that sort of styuff. In my experience, most jurors bend over backwards to get it right. I just wish the general public (and a few dealers) did the same.
"Whenever this sticky topic comes up, which it does in the Q and A after many of my public talks, I tell people not to look at signatures and definitely don't look at who's standing beside the art. Actually, I don't think painters should be standing there at all. They should be somewhere else, painting.
". . . .I shared Suzanne's letter with my painter daughter.'It seems to me, Dad,' she said, 'this is not a letter about the subjugation of women artists. . . it isn't a feminist issue. . . it's a self-esteem issue. Thriving as an artist--in all of its forms--our entitlement to our lives and livelihood, our imagination, our believed limitations, our expectations and dreams for our work, our professionalism, our perceived competition and, most importantly, our JOY, requires the serving of an eviction notice to the voice of doubt squatting inside us'."
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Here's a link to the blog. There are many responses to the orginal letter that you might like to read.
http://clicks.robertgenn.com/level-playing-field.php
I'd love to hear your reactions!