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"Men like to refer to me as the best female painter. I think I'm one of the best painters," Georgia O'Keefe said in one of her interviews, knowing full well that in her lifetime there was often a silent but vocal questioning of women, as well as their supposed inferiority. To be a "good woman artist" is to be good for a woman.
Historically, women only had a place in museums after being projected as naked, seductive, mysterious, witches, as male artists basically wanted to project them. They were the muses, not the artists.
To thank Young BPW and Visual Spaces for inviting me to be here with you today and to congratulate them on this initiative, which unfortunately in 2023 is necessary and I will explain why.
From the beginning of my tenure I have participated in events on women mathematicians, women in shipping, women in conflict and peace processes, among others. What do all of the above have in common with women in the arts? That women are not recognized, heard and promoted.
I will repeat what I mentioned in previous events and it seems that I will not stop repeating it: women need a space and a voice, so that women's role models can be created, which should be heard and promoted. The fact is that we cannot be what we do not see.
At the same time, the history of women through the centuries is presented through the eyes of men and we know very well that when, for example, women wanted to write, to paint, they signed with a man's name or with numbers.
Friends,
I want to be clear, this is not a competition between women and men. But when we learn and understand women's history too then we will have a more complete picture of the history of all of us.
Women need to have a voice and access. To this day we know our history mostly through narratives and images of men (His Story).
Women's stories (His Story) teach us what the world is/was like through women's perspectives and experiences and to this day women's stories are not as visible as men's. Women's stories should and must be visible through time: exposed, visible, so that they can be celebrated, critiqued, analyzed. Instead, to this day her story is presented through a male perspective, because it was men who had access to paper, ink, brush and canvas, to the commons, to politics, among other things.
In fact, when I was writing today's speech I was debating with myself whether we are indeed reclaiming or claiming women.
Women have been contributing to art for centuries, but this has not been acknowledged either. This is also due to the social status given to women through time. Many of the works of women, as I mentioned above were not signed. Example, Sophonisba Anguissolla, an Italian Renaissance painter specializing in portraits, who was one of the first women to receive formal art training. Her genius was such that the Spanish court invited her to teach Queen Elizabeth of Valois and to serve as court painter to King Philip II. However, her position in the court hierarchy was "lady in waiting". At the same time, I am sure that to think of painters historically, our minds will think of many more men than women.
At the same time, the invisibility of women artists brings another problem to the fore: that of the gender pay gap in the art world. According to statistics, it's an undeniable fact, since of the $196.6 billion spent at art auctions between 2008 and 2019, work produced by women accounted for just 2% of total sales. That's a gender gap of $192 billion.
Yale University's analysis found that museum collections in the top 18 in the US are overwhelmingly dominated by male artists at 87%.
In the UK, only 1% of the National Gallery of London's collection is devoted to works by women, while a 2022 BBC survey reveals that 83% of respondents could not name more than three female artists.
Friends,
Our Office, recognising the need to mainstream gender in all areas and on the basis of the Ministerial Decision, which authorises the Office to prepare, monitor and evaluate the new gender equality strategy in collaboration with all ministries and sub-ministries, with the aim of mainstreaming the gender dimension in government policies, we are consulting with the wider civil society to include actions in the fields of culture, arts, labour and entrepreneurship and I hope that Young BPW will be actively involved in its formulation. At the same time, I am able to announce that we will soon proceed with mapping the percentage of women's works in the collection of the State Gallery.
Good luck, congratulations on the initiative and we are by your side.
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