by Jon Lackman | 8 May 2009 | Contemporary, Museums
From Le Monde:
The second edition of the exhibition, “The Power of Art,” has opened its doors. This triennial event, organized by the minister of culture and communication, the Centre national des arts plastiques and the Réunion des musées nationaux, comprises three sections … Among the 42 “resident” artists, just 7 women are presented … In this exhibition that aims to represent the French artistic scene, women thus constitute 16% … How can “The Power of Art” which pretends to be a “great encounter with creation in France” and “up-to-date with the French scene”, so fully ignore the depth, diversity, professionalism, and engagement of an entire part of that artistic scene? … Recall that today 60% of art-school graduates in France are women …
The Musée national d’art moderne itself takes note of these sad statistics in its preamble to its next exhibition, “Elles@centrepompidou”, with this slogan: “At the Centre Pompidou, women represent 17.7% of the artists in the museum’s collections. This new presentation of the collections is 100% devoted to them.” This new hanging, which will last one year, belongs to a tradition of thematic presentations, “Le mouvement des images” (2006-2007) and “Big Bang” (2005-2006) … and surely has the laudable goal of righting the ship and of (temporarily) re-equilibrating and apologising. But it’s exactly the temporary and apologetic nature of the endeavor that reveals the crucial problem. The exhibition “Elles@centrepompidou”, with its so “typically feminine” sponsor Yves Rocher, “your beauty partner” (because they’re so worth it?), perfectly symbolizes the place assigned to women artists at the highest levels of French institutions — precarious, peripheral, isolated, always in the role of exception; women artists are furthermore systematically referred to the supposed specificity of their gender.
Wow. That is shocking. It’s as if the Guerrila Girls never happened. I’m so angry!
Do you really think the Guerilla girls accomplished any real change? If so, you missed the point of their work… Male supremacy still rules the art world, even when women are in charge.