Gender politics never seemed very interesting to me. Sorting out my own took up my time, and since I saw early on everyone was lying, anyway, wasn’t much reason to get involved. It is an important issue in art, however, not because of who makes it, but because of who looks at it and how they see it, how they see themselves. On its face it’s a strange issue, women under-represented in art, since every art school I’ve ever seen seemed to be about half and half on the faculty, and three quarters of the students were female. It is the case that most famous artists are male, historically and up until now, but the few exceptions assume their status without qualification.
The more pertinent question to me would be how many women think about art, respond to art, and hope to acquire some. Art is about self image, strangely enough not of the artist, but of the person who buys and owns it. Artists aren’t all geniuses, just driven people attempting to confront the gaping maw of the economy on their own, heroically and probably somewhat naively. Imbedded in their product are the courage and sacrifice, humor and longing they bring with them when they paint, can’t be avoided, and the better they become the more those attributes come through. When those elements find resonance with the values of a viewer, and they buy it and take it home, it becomes their own expression, their reminder of who they are there on the wall seen everyday.
Who among us today don’t identify with their mothers, with restrictions and role models passed down from biblical times, with the slow pace of bureaucracy, pissed with harassment on the sidewalk, tired of waiting by the phone? Isn’t us. We’re fairly content with beer and sports, pretending to be construction guys in the parking lot, James Bond watching a pole-dancer. Manly men, as a portion of the population, don’t seem to care much for art, and actually aren’t ready to express themselves much about anything, one way or the other. They’re due a breakout too.
What would make bonding of intellect and sensitivity, revealing attitudes toward both self-identity and communion, quicker and easier? Women special should consider owning art. Patriarchal attitudes toward art, as trophy, as investment, as status symbol, are seriously beside the point. Art is the medium of direct communication, mind to mind, and doesn’t really have a gender, but it does have a time. History has us on different tracks, m’s and f’s, but even so these days everybody has an equal chance to make art, to look at art, and to own it.
The more pertinent question to me would be how many women think about art, respond to art, and hope to acquire some. Art is about self image, strangely enough not of the artist, but of the person who buys and owns it. Artists aren’t all geniuses, just driven people attempting to confront the gaping maw of the economy on their own, heroically and probably somewhat naively. Imbedded in their product are the courage and sacrifice, humor and longing they bring with them when they paint, can’t be avoided, and the better they become the more those attributes come through. When those elements find resonance with the values of a viewer, and they buy it and take it home, it becomes their own expression, their reminder of who they are there on the wall seen everyday.
Who among us today don’t identify with their mothers, with restrictions and role models passed down from biblical times, with the slow pace of bureaucracy, pissed with harassment on the sidewalk, tired of waiting by the phone? Isn’t us. We’re fairly content with beer and sports, pretending to be construction guys in the parking lot, James Bond watching a pole-dancer. Manly men, as a portion of the population, don’t seem to care much for art, and actually aren’t ready to express themselves much about anything, one way or the other. They’re due a breakout too.
What would make bonding of intellect and sensitivity, revealing attitudes toward both self-identity and communion, quicker and easier? Women special should consider owning art. Patriarchal attitudes toward art, as trophy, as investment, as status symbol, are seriously beside the point. Art is the medium of direct communication, mind to mind, and doesn’t really have a gender, but it does have a time. History has us on different tracks, m’s and f’s, but even so these days everybody has an equal chance to make art, to look at art, and to own it.
No comments:
Post a Comment