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Curatorial Activism is organizing art exhibits that are solely focused on giving artists that are not represented in major museums like the MET or the MOMA. Artists like women, people of color, queer and non-Euro-Americans. This is to fight against museums that solely show art from white men. For the future of art, I envision museums representing different artists from different parts of the world.
Towards a Curatorial Activism | Dr. Maura Reilly
“After even a cursory glance at art world statistics such as these, which are (sadly) almost identical in every mainstream museum throughout the world, it is evident that sexism and racism have become so insidiously woven into the institutional fabric, language and logic of the mainstream art world that the inequities in representation often go undetected.”
People who don’t know much about art will not know that artists don’t get represented as much as white men. Before going to college, art teachers don’t talk about this issue so unless the student is interested in art it will not be brought up. It also depends on what people are looking for to come across this issue.
“There are no women equivalents for Rembrandt, Delacroix or Cézanne, Picasso or Matisse,’ she argued, “any more than there are black American equivalents of the same.”2 The problem, she argued, lies not in our hormones, as women, nor by extension is it in the colour of our skin (if one happens to be non-white) — but in our institutions and our education. Thus the question of equality, she argues, devolves around the very nature of institutional structures themselves, and the white masculine prerogative they assume as ‘natural’.”
This was mentioned in articles I read, that the problem wasn’t our skin, gender, or orientation but our education. However, I disagree because some artworks I have seen would have one or two things on them, yet it was still shown in a gallery. We indeed need to learn certain skills in schools that we cannot do on our own, but some people make beautiful artwork without any training.
What is Curatorial Activism? by Dr. Maura Reilly | ArtNews
“Most curators today don’t seem concerned with equality in representation or a diversity of voices. Nor are they acknowledging that the contemporary art world is sexist, racist, oppressive and that they are playing a critical role in this “centralized system of apartheid,” as Gerardo Mosquera rightly calls it.”
- Curators want to show quality art but art is subjective so how do they decide on what to show? Maybe they don’t realize it or think that people will not come to see the collection if it’s not from certain artists. In the Guerrilla Girls video, they talk to a curator about the lack of representation, and they were able to do something about it and receive a letter from them.
“In the end, instead of denying statistics, or ignoring the subject of gender, race, and sexuality altogether, we all need to stop making excuses and to face these issues head-on in order to come up with solutions, possibilities, and strategies for addressing these inequities.”
Many people like the Guerilla Girls are doing everything they can to turn people’s attention to artists who are not well-known in the art world or could not show their work in famous museums like the MET or MOMA. The system won’t change unless activists can prove that what they have now will not work in the long run.
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