LET'S SPIT ON THE GENIUS
Kurátorka Blanca de la Torre
In 1989, a shift in the Guerrilla Girls' work took place when they added a distinct female image to their poster "Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?" Beneath the question lay a reproduction of Ingres' Odalisque, a reclining nude figure whose nude back and hips symbolize idealized female beauty. Instead of a beautiful and classic profile, however, the figure has been masked with the Guerrilla Girls' hallmark -- a large, shaggy gorilla's head.
The title of the show comes from “Let’s spit on Hegel” by Carla Lonzi, founding member of the group Rivolta Femminile, which originated a wave of feminism, that finally crystallized in the creation of the Women’s Library in Milano and the Women’s Library in Parma.
Obviously the apparent XXI century men-women equality promoted by institutions, still affects to the art world, and it is grueling that art institutions keep declaring how inequality is over and it is no longer a matter of gender but quality of the work. There is an apparent equality of access but not of acknowledgement, and the actual reality is that the presence of women in museums, biennials and any exhibitions today is still considerably lower than men ones.
Actually, in our own museum, the ARTIUM Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basque Country, the percentage of women in the collection remains as just 19% women. Yes, 180 women versus 752 men! According to Lourdes Méndez, the biggest painting Museum, The Prado Museum, has in its collection more than 15.000 art works and... only 12 made by women!!!, (Méndez, Lourdes “Las excluidas del genio. Artistas mujeres e ideología carismática”, en Anais, Serie Sociológica vol. II. Universidad Autónoma de Lisboa, 1999, pp. 241-248.)
It is curious that the percentage of Graduated women in Fine Arts in 2003-2004 was 64% versus 33% of men, but then between 2005-2007 in the MNCARS (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía), MACBA (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona) and IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno) there were 94 solo shows and only 15 (16%) where dedicated to women artists.
To end up with a very recent percentage, in the last edition of the ARCO fair 2010 only a 7% where Spanish artists.
It’s hard to speak about this discrimination while curators, critics and theoreticians speak about an equality of opportunities and when the problem has its roots in an obsolete and traditional art history which still speaks about concepts like genius, inspiration or masterpiece as an instrument to measure the artwork as a product.
Art has been always linked and dependant to its socio-cultural context, specially concerning race, social class and gender. Already in the 70’s, in Linda Nochlin times it still seemed that female genius have never existed and that the blame is put on women’s innate lack of artistic capacities, let’s say an inherent incompetence to make art, without taking into account her considerations like the socio-cultural blocks that have prevent access to women in the art world along art history. Nochlin demonstrated the existence of remarkable women artists in the past, whose presence was purposefully silenced by the system.
Feminism meant a total revolution in the theories of representation, but unfortunately feminist art is usually considered like a trend or an art movement. But it is a mistake to speak about feminist art like we speak about Cubism.
Theories of feminism helped converting art in a political battlefield and showed how representation may imply subversion and destabilization of the rules and opening up the possibility of rethinking traditional roles questioning the “status quo”.
The feminist movement in Spain was not developed in parallel to the United States or the rest of Europe. The II Republic during the 30s allowed women to obtain a series of rights captured in the 1931 Constitution. At that time Spain emerged as one of the pioneers in feminine emancipation.
However, the fascist victory in 1939 and the Franco dictatorship only conceived women as a wife and mother, which stopped any hope of liberalization and immersed Spain in a retrograde and obsolete country where feminism was limited to certain clandestine sectors. At least, in 1954 the Argentinian publishing company Siglo XX translated into Spanish “The Second Sex” (1949) by Simone de Beauvoir, which allowed women –unfortunately a very limited part because it was prohibited by the catholic church- to reflect about these issues. It will not be until the late 60s when we can perceive in Spain some slight feminist discourses, but the real emergence of a feminist movement will not happen until the 70s, with a patent delay with respect to another countries. Modern feminist will start in Spain a few days after Franco’s death, in the “Jornadas de Madrid” in December 1975, still in underground. During the so-called “transition” of the ‘80s there was a phenomenon of institutionalization of feminism which crystallized in the creation of the Institute of the Women. The New Feminisms, specially developed during the 90s, emerged from foreign influences as well as the atomization of different positions.
Of course, everything is mutable and the ancient dichotomy sex-gender stays absolutely questionable, but we are just trying to pay a humble homage to those women who have been fighting to subvert the traditional sexist rules and give a brief selection from our collection which shows that even being a minority, the quality is considerably remarkable to make us think why institutions are still having women in their collections as a minority and maintaining a society and patriarchal culture. Cooking our own goose as a subtle reconciliation.
This is a humble homage to those women creators that have been forgotten and the ones who keep showing whose works that cannot be forgotten just for the sake of their gender condition because like Simone de Beauvoir said in “The Second Sex” (1949 “One is not born a woman, but becomes one” (p. 13)
The title of the show comes from “Let’s spit on Hegel” by Carla Lonzi, founding member of the group Rivolta Femminile, which originated a wave of feminism, that finally crystallized in the creation of the Women’s Library in Milano and the Women’s Library in Parma.
Obviously the apparent XXI century men-women equality promoted by institutions, still affects to the art world, and it is grueling that art institutions keep declaring how inequality is over and it is no longer a matter of gender but quality of the work. There is an apparent equality of access but not of acknowledgement, and the actual reality is that the presence of women in museums, biennials and any exhibitions today is still considerably lower than men ones.
Actually, in our own museum, the ARTIUM Museum of Contemporary Art of the Basque Country, the percentage of women in the collection remains as just 19% women. Yes, 180 women versus 752 men! According to Lourdes Méndez, the biggest painting Museum, The Prado Museum, has in its collection more than 15.000 art works and... only 12 made by women!!!, (Méndez, Lourdes “Las excluidas del genio. Artistas mujeres e ideología carismática”, en Anais, Serie Sociológica vol. II. Universidad Autónoma de Lisboa, 1999, pp. 241-248.)
It is curious that the percentage of Graduated women in Fine Arts in 2003-2004 was 64% versus 33% of men, but then between 2005-2007 in the MNCARS (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía), MACBA (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona) and IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno) there were 94 solo shows and only 15 (16%) where dedicated to women artists.
To end up with a very recent percentage, in the last edition of the ARCO fair 2010 only a 7% where Spanish artists.
It’s hard to speak about this discrimination while curators, critics and theoreticians speak about an equality of opportunities and when the problem has its roots in an obsolete and traditional art history which still speaks about concepts like genius, inspiration or masterpiece as an instrument to measure the artwork as a product.
Art has been always linked and dependant to its socio-cultural context, specially concerning race, social class and gender. Already in the 70’s, in Linda Nochlin times it still seemed that female genius have never existed and that the blame is put on women’s innate lack of artistic capacities, let’s say an inherent incompetence to make art, without taking into account her considerations like the socio-cultural blocks that have prevent access to women in the art world along art history. Nochlin demonstrated the existence of remarkable women artists in the past, whose presence was purposefully silenced by the system.
Feminism meant a total revolution in the theories of representation, but unfortunately feminist art is usually considered like a trend or an art movement. But it is a mistake to speak about feminist art like we speak about Cubism.
Theories of feminism helped converting art in a political battlefield and showed how representation may imply subversion and destabilization of the rules and opening up the possibility of rethinking traditional roles questioning the “status quo”.
The feminist movement in Spain was not developed in parallel to the United States or the rest of Europe. The II Republic during the 30s allowed women to obtain a series of rights captured in the 1931 Constitution. At that time Spain emerged as one of the pioneers in feminine emancipation.
However, the fascist victory in 1939 and the Franco dictatorship only conceived women as a wife and mother, which stopped any hope of liberalization and immersed Spain in a retrograde and obsolete country where feminism was limited to certain clandestine sectors. At least, in 1954 the Argentinian publishing company Siglo XX translated into Spanish “The Second Sex” (1949) by Simone de Beauvoir, which allowed women –unfortunately a very limited part because it was prohibited by the catholic church- to reflect about these issues. It will not be until the late 60s when we can perceive in Spain some slight feminist discourses, but the real emergence of a feminist movement will not happen until the 70s, with a patent delay with respect to another countries. Modern feminist will start in Spain a few days after Franco’s death, in the “Jornadas de Madrid” in December 1975, still in underground. During the so-called “transition” of the ‘80s there was a phenomenon of institutionalization of feminism which crystallized in the creation of the Institute of the Women. The New Feminisms, specially developed during the 90s, emerged from foreign influences as well as the atomization of different positions.
Of course, everything is mutable and the ancient dichotomy sex-gender stays absolutely questionable, but we are just trying to pay a humble homage to those women who have been fighting to subvert the traditional sexist rules and give a brief selection from our collection which shows that even being a minority, the quality is considerably remarkable to make us think why institutions are still having women in their collections as a minority and maintaining a society and patriarchal culture. Cooking our own goose as a subtle reconciliation.
This is a humble homage to those women creators that have been forgotten and the ones who keep showing whose works that cannot be forgotten just for the sake of their gender condition because like Simone de Beauvoir said in “The Second Sex” (1949 “One is not born a woman, but becomes one” (p. 13)
seznam umělců
Maria Ribot
Juncal Ballestín
Susana Solano
Estíbaliz Sádaba
Pilar Albarracín
Ángeles Agrela
Charo Garaigorta
Mireya Masó
Cabello/Carceller
