Denmark. Gender discrimination in art: Can't we at least be second or third movers?
Denmark. Gender discrimination in art: Can't we at least be second or third movers?
Column by Augusta Atla published in Kunsten.nu - 24 November 2023
Column by Augusta Atla published in Kunsten.nu - 24 November 2023
Last week saw the release of the first ever government survey in Denmark regarding gender representation in art museums in Denmark. It's good news, but generally not good enough!
In my frustration that Denmark is lagging so far behind England and France when it comes to the representation of female and lgbtqa+ artists at art museums, I asked in an interview with the Minister of Culture last year whether it wasn't time to get data and transparency on gender and the financial support that the state gives the state-recognized museums across the country.
Now, a new study of gender and the purchase of works at 37 state-recognized museums in Denmark has just been published. It was conducted by the state itself, namely by the Ministry of Culture and the Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces.
At the same time, the Ministry of Culture sent out a press release stating that they have decided - due to the poor figures - to conduct the survey every year in the future.
Fortunately, there is some good news on the list of 37 museums when it comes to art purchases: Arken, SMK, KØS, Museum Salling and Louisiana have all purchased significantly more works by female artists than by male artists in the period 2018-2022.
In general, however, the figures show that two-thirds of museums' art purchases still go to men and that museums generally open more exhibitions with works by male artists, which unfortunately only emphasizes that Denmark is still lagging behind. This means that we are behind when it comes to archiving the 'lost oeuvre' of female artists, but also when it comes to the dissemination of this oeuvre, and that we lack a more mainstream understanding of the importance of feminism in art theory.
It's not just that women artists don't succeed in their lifetime, because many women artists did, but that they are written out of history, which is why archiving and research in our museums is so important.
Because it is in the archiving of museum collections and in books that history is written. Our understanding of art history will not change if researchers or museum directors continue to write out women artists by not archiving them in their museum galleries and not writing about them in history books.
But this one action by the Ministry of Culture is unfortunately not enough to change old habits - habits of unknowingly choosing on behalf of a particular gender - of favoring male artists. Yes, we are facing a new era professionally, where the "classic male art canon" no longer holds water, and museums in Denmark still need a thorough transformation.
Idea catalog for the Ministry of Culture
There are many other measures that probably need to be introduced before we can see crystal clear in the field and no longer be preconceived and 'biased' in the art industry when museums make acquisitions, researchers write dissertations, curators arrange permanent hangings, and curators create museum exhibition programs.
We need a physical research library on the work of women and lgbtqa+ artists. We need the museum overview in Kunstindeks Danmark to be divided by gender. We need the Danish Arts Foundation's own support to be broken down by gender, especially the representation at the Venice Biennale (gender data, which is also very poor. From 1986-2019: 28.4% female artists).
We need the Ministry of Culture itself to stand up for the Equal Treatment Act, which states: "Public authorities shall within their area work for equality and incorporate equality in all planning and administration in the areas covered by this Act".
The Ministry of Culture's website lacks a clear and written policy that it chooses to support art museums that reflect contemporary art and that funding can be reassessed if quality is lost due to discrimination of artworks based on the gender of the artist!
Or, as I suggested to the Minister of Culture at a debate event on 6 November 2023 (Charlottenborg Kaffeklub #9): One could invent a new vision pool for art that the state-recognized museums could apply for annually. A pool of money where museums can apply for new acquisitions of works by women artists in a specific time period, of a specific type (e.g. works on paper) - or permanent new furnishings, i.e. architectural interventions at the museums à la Tracey Emin's new bronze doors at the National Portrait Gallery. Or new online presentations of women artists and themes in museum collections à la Tate. Apps or flyer strategies that map gender in the collection.
And centrally, there is a lack of a national project launched by SMK with an online archive of female artists from Denmark - Danish female architects already have such an online archive: www.womenindanisharchitecture.dk. And both the US and France already have it.
The state and municipalities also support art fairs in Denmark, including CHART. Would it be possible to imagine gender quotas in the exhibition program at the fairs supported by the state? Representation at CHART's galleries: Of the permanent gallery artists, 26% were female artists in 2020, and at the same galleries, seen again in 2023, they represented a total of 28.4% female artists.
The Danish Arts Foundation could create a new grant pool for the publication of monographs on Danish women artists. Or grant funds for podcasts or TV programs on the subject.
Or the state could create PhD positions for artists and art historians to further the understanding of the "new oeuvre" - works by women artists in history.
What about public schools? Is it part of the visual arts curriculum to teach children about women artists as well? Are there overview works for children about Danish female artists?
I would recommend that all newspapers in Denmark have monthly columns written by female artists. More Danish newspapers could have columns written by art historians, like the one art historian Katy Hessel has in The Guardian about women artists.
And DR or TV2 could also make BBC-style documentaries about Danish female artists or a travel program about international female artists.
Using art as a weapon
Research shows that there have been female artists since the 1500s in Europe, and not just 100 overlooked female artists in history. From the 16th century onwards, we are talking about thousands of female artists internationally. Throughout the centuries, women artists have not only "settled" for the low rank in society in general, but more importantly, in their industry: the art profession.
More or less subtly over the centuries, women artists have also worked with women's liberation in their work itself. Women artists have used art itself as a weapon.
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653), for example, worked at a time when painting was used to depict important men in a deeply patriarchal social structure, but firstly, she dared to paint what had weight: biblical and mythological stories, and secondly, she painted female figures who were not afraid to appear violent and dominant. Indeed, Artemisia's famous work Judith Beheading Holofernes (1612) is thought to be a response to the fact that she was raped at the age of 17 in her father's studio by another Italian painter, Agostino Tassi.
This is just one example. Gender as power and being "the outsider" is in itself a thematic perspective that we are sorely lacking museum exhibitions about in Denmark.
Can't we at least be second or third movers?
To my delight, the new figures show that SMK has changed its strategy since 2014. In 2014, museum curator Birgitte Anderberg spoke on behalf of SMK in the Danish newspaper Information:
"It's not something you can just change. We don't see ourselves as the ones who should be the first. We are a large and heavy institution, and we don't always have to be first movers."
Hopefully, SMK is already planning a new strategy for its permanent museum hangings, as another heavyweight institution, Tate Britain, has just done this year.
Because it is far from enough to make the exhibition about the fact that 'X female artists' were missing from history and have been written out. We understand that now. This should once and for all be confirmed nationally, i.e. with a new permanent exhibition at SMK and ARoS about Danish women artists from 1600 to the present day - period!
This national initiative is absolutely necessary and a kind of new primer for museum hanging, so that we don't have to talk about these fundamental and basic aspects of the subject endlessly. If we don't do it soon, we will perpetuate ourselves as professionally stupid and incompetent in Denmark.
England and France are first movers in this area, where Denmark is still lagging behind. Can't we at least put our foot on the accelerator NOW and be second or third movers?