Female Artists

d7hftxdivxxvm.cloudfrontI am a huge champion of female entrepreneurs.  Bottom line, it is harder for female founders in the tech world and it is harder for females in the tech world, period.  That difficulty bleeds into other industries too. I hope as the conversation around gender equality, in all walks of life, becomes an every day occurrence that we will see significant change over the years to come.

In the art world, it is harder for women too.  The L.A. artist Kim Schoenstadt recently took this photo in front of the new gallery in downtown L.A., Hauser Wirth & Schimmel.   She sent out an email to 200 female artists asking them to participate and bring their friends too.  733 women participated in this photograph.  The photo took place at the end of the first exhibit shown in the gallery, an all-female group show called   “Revolution In the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 1947-2016.  We saw the exhibit when it opened and was impressed with the statement they made making this their first show.

Schoenstadt was inspired to do this piece based on the photograph taken by Art Kane in the summer of 1958. Kane was a freelancer photographer for Esquire.  He asked for all the Jazz Musicians of the day to show up in Harlem for a group photo including Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, and Thelonious Monk.  The photo was published on the front cover of Esquire magazine in January 1958 and has become known as A Great Day in Harlem.

Let’s hope that we will look back on this photo as a turning point for women artists to be shown in more galleries, more museums and the ability to create more for all the world to see.

Comments (Archived):

  1. bsoist

    I know I’ve commented on this here before, but our children are growing up in a world run by white men. White men can’t understand how different that is for girls (and people of color) than from their own experience, but we can try to act in ways that bring change.Fortunately, I think things are finally starting to change.

    1. Gotham Gal

      I do think things are beginning to change too.

  2. awaldstein

    From a creator perspective this doesn’t appear to be true in the music world and certain it is not true in the winemaking world where the number of women making wine has jumped hugely, spurred alot by generational winemaking families handing the mantle to the daughter or granddaughter.

    1. Gotham Gal

      true on the creator side of music. some of my favorite wines are made by women.

      1. awaldstein

        Yup though many of my favorites are done by couples.Off to Duoro Valley and Savoie In a couple of weeks and super excited for this opportunity.

        1. Gotham Gal

          nice!

  3. Kirsten Lambertsen

    Looks like a Great Day in L.A. 🙂 It’s impressive that she was able to get that many women to all show up on the same day at the same time (people are busy!). Respect.

    1. Gotham Gal

      Women show up to stuff that care about.