The Art Market: No Girls Allowed?
Traditionally, it’s been a sausage fest but according to the latest report the art world is finally waking up. Enter the Women Artists Market Report – your backstage pass to what’s happening. “The State of the Market for Women Artists’ Work,” goes beyond the surface, unraveling not only insights but also lays out persistent challenges faced by women in the art world.
The Deep Dive: What the Report Unveils
Spoiler alert: progress is on the canvas, but the victory lap isn’t quite here.
Despite the ongoing conversation about gender equality, the auction market falls short of mirroring that reality by a huge margin. In 2022, a colossal $11 billion changed hands at art auctions. How much belonged to our talented women artists? Brace yourself—just 9.3%, a smidge over a billion.
Shockingly, not a single piece in the top 50 most expensive artworks was by a woman. The total sales of the top 50 works by women artists? $332.4 million. Sounds pretty good, but it wouldn’t even buy you the two priciest works by male artists – Warhol’s “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” and Seurat’s “Les Poseuses, Ensemble” – which raked in a combined $344.3 million. The gender gap in art is no myth; it’s a reality check.
The Good, the Bad, and the Auctions
The top 1,000 artist auction records in 2022? Just 229 women artists made the cut, totaling $122.7 million. Quite a contrast to the record-breaking male artists like Seurat and Cézanne, who hammered for $149.2 million and $137.8 million, respectively.
From 2012 to 2022, women artists claimed only 6% of the auction market, with sales reaching $6.7 billion. To put it in perspective, the most expensive artwork sold in this decade, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” fetching a jaw-dropping $450.3 million in 2017. Of the top 500 priciest artworks from that period, only seven are by women artists, totaling $217.1 million.
I know, I know, it’s Leonardo da Vinci…. fine; Let’s go with the second and third most pricey paintings then shall we – Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn ($195 million in 2022) and Picasso’s Les femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’) ($179.4 million in 2015), totalling $374.4 million—$150 million more than all top 500 works by women artists. 🤦♀️ WOMP, WOMP!
This is not the first time that the industry has had to face up to its ongoing inequality in recent months. Unveiling a reality check in December, the Burns Halperin report, an annual probe into representation within US museums and the broader market, found that – only 11% of acquisitions by US museums originated from female-identifying artists. The optimism surrounding digital innovation as a way to level the field has been squashed as well, with just 5-15% of the NFT industry’s turnover generated by women, as reported by the AI-powered app Limna.
It’s not all doom and gloom. Surprisingly, 2022 set a record for women artists at auction, with sales soaring 194% to $1.03 billion. This significant growth, especially in the ultra-contemporary sector, signifies a promising shift.
Female Artists Dwarfed But There’s Hope
At the age of 93, Yayoi Kusama is a true star of the contemporary art scene. Thousands flock to see the Japanese artist’s installations, where lights and colors are infinitely multiplied.
She steals the show with her blockbuster exhibitions and Instagram-friendly “Infinity Rooms” with nearly 68,000 followers. Which also signals a shift in how we appreciate art as a narcissistic society when art becomes a mere backdrop to an selfie and the soulless pursuit of a pretty picture… more on that in another post.
Beyond social media prominence, Kusama’s auction record reached $10.49 million in 2022, reminding us of the intricate dance between artistic visionary and commercial success. She also tops the charts for the most works sold at auction in the past decade. Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1” takes the crown for the most expensive work by a woman artist of the past decade, selling for $44.4 million.
As the art world evolves, so does the narrative – creating a canvas that reflects both the struggle and triumphs. But The triumphs are trivial when you look at the cold hard numbers.
I’ve heard people claim that women are killing it on social media and yes, social has been a great way for me to be seen and send people to my shop but it in no way equates to these kinds of fortunes.
The Bottom Line: It’s All An Artistic Mess
In a nutshell, women artists are making strides, claiming their spotlight, but the road to equality? That’s a long twisted road that began a long time ago but I’ll make a quick point on it.
The shenanigans began In the 1960’s, the idea of “art as investment”. Director of Sotheby’s London Art Business Master’s David Bellingham stated that when deciding the defining factor of the art market in the 1970s that “it would be how art developed as an alternative investment asset”. Let’s not even mention In 1969, Sotheby’s Auction House launched what is now Sotheby’s Institute of Art, responding to the need for education on the business of art. Do I even need to point out how fishy that smells?
Money Killed Art: Billionaire Bull
As an artist from the rural community of South Glengarry, I’ve witnessed the power of local artistry and the disparities in the art industry first hand in all none “chosen” artists. There is talent here and the billionaires have turned the arts into a stock to be divided up and traded and hoarded in freeports where they don’t get taxed, separating themselves from the unwashed masses.
In my journey down the rabbit hole of challenges faced by women artists in the global art market, I found inspiration from the resilience ingrained in the spirit of all the South Glengarry artists, not just women. AND I SAY…
Build Our Own Art Market. Separate from the Billionaires who play with the art like their trading cards.
Instead of posters of million dollar artworks on you’re walls buy an original from a living artist, you know one of us “unwashed masses – peasants, if you will”. Learn about art history and appreciate the art for the depth and emotional connections that it inspires rather than the INSTA worthy picture you can take.
Join the movement at Cherry Bomb Studio. Be part of a vibrant community, and don’t miss out – sign up for the VIP list! Be the first to know about upcoming events in the studio, where we aim to foster a space for women artists and, who knows, maybe even cultivate the next generation of Matrons! 🎨🌟
Stay Punk!