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42

A consistent number at the CoUNTesses offices is 40.  That's 40% on average of representation of women artists in Australia's public and commercial galleries.  But CoUNTess noticed a couple of changing signs that inch our numbers closer towards equality in gender representation in the visual arts we thought we would share with you.  42 for now is the new 40. First of all were pleased to see so many female artists represented by commercial galleries getting some wall space at this this years Gallery Art Basel Hong Kong.  In fact 42% of the Australian galleries artists in the Hong Kong Basel Art Fair are women! Diane Tanzer - Natasha Bieniek Utopian Slumps - Jake Walker Sullivan_Strumpf - Sam Leach, Tony Albert, Ex de Medici, Alex Seton Tolarno Gallery - Anastasia Klose, Patricia Picinini, Ben Quilty Jan Murphy Gallery - Danie Mellor Murray White Room - Polly Borland, Anne-Marie May, Alasdair McLuckie, Aubry/Broquard Anna Schwartz - Heman Chong, Angela de la Cruz Roslyn Oxley9 - Daniel Boyd, Fiona Hall

CoUNTess has been keeping a running tab of art prizes over the last twelve months (but admits it is not an exhaustive range) but found that here also in the land of art prizes 42% of the 2013 winners have been female artists! 

While understanding the limits of magical thinking and the claim that 42 is the answer to the universe and everything, and remembering that Elvis did not live to see 43, CoUNTess believes that 42 is indeed a special number we will be keeping our eye on.

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The 19th Biennale of Sydney 2014 : Imagine what you desire

  The Biennale of Sydney established in 1973 has been curated by 4 women, 14 men and 1 collaborative team (m+f).

The 19th Biennale of Sydney - Imagine What You Desire curated by Julianna Engberg continues her commitment, established via her role as Artistic Director of ACCA for many years, where a high representation of women artists have exhibited.  Engberg includes 38 female artists and 45 male artists in the 19th Biennale which shows a promising result and a steep improvement on previous years.

  Gender Representation of Artists in the 19th Biennale of Sydney 2014

    But while women are certainly participating in the 2014 Biennale in greater numbers CoUNTess data mining also uncovered a gender bias in the media and marketing around the exhibition/event.  

Catalogue cover = 1 male artist

Website links to Youtube video interviews with artists = 3 male artists, 1 collab duo (m+f) Primary School education resource = 4 female artists, 11 male artists and 3 collab Secondary School education resource = 10 female artists, 15 male artists, 5 collab

While the website also features a list of exhibitions in local commerical and public galleries, selection for inclusion in this list is unclear - so CoUNTess counted a range of local Sydney contemporary art spaces to see what artists were on show. * indicates gallery was holding two solo exhibitions

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Not enough women of "merit" ?

Not enough women of "merit" ?

CoUNTess email mailbox set off gender representation alarm bells this week when more than a few emails rolled in announcing the selected artists in a number of upcoming exhibitions in some of Australia's publicly funded museums and public spaces. Whether you're emerging or established or as they say in Melbourne "NOW",  in these prominent exhibitions it would seem the art-world gatekeepers are having the same problem as Tony Abbott who could not find enough women of "merit" to fill his governments' cabinet positions!  Annabel Crabb commentary on Abbott's "merit" claim is quoted here for its humour and the familiar parallel with claims of artistic merit that also dominate the contemporary visual arts;

"That's just how it panned out" is the traditionalists' defence of organisations that proudly appoint "only on merit" and find, time after time, that an astonishingly high proportion of the really excellent people also have willies."

1. NSW Visual Arts Fellowship for Emerging Artists (used to be Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship) 12 Finalists - 4 female artists - 8 male artists There is really no excuse for gender inequality in a show of selected emerging artists fresh out of our national art schools which are overflowing with female students (previous CoUNTess posts have determined up to 70% and sometimes more graduating students from fine art courses are women).  How does a result occur where twice as many male artists than women artists are selected?  Is the way the art-world judges artistic merit playing a part?  Is artistic merit gendered?  Or is it possible women artists are not applying in sufficient numbers? If not why not?   For reference CoUNTess combed back through the scholarships history and found an equal distribution of the scholarship winners between female, male and collaborative duos.  But regardless of such an even handed historical result, when Artspace recently put together a travelling exhibition showcasing some of the previous winners prophetically titled How Yesterday Remembers Tomorrow it included; 1 solo female artist, 2collaborative male/female duos and 3 solo male artists - effectively 5 male artists and 3female artists. The Artspace website, where this scholarship exhibition has been held on an annual basis, quotes the Minister for the Arts The Hon. George Souris MP who states:

“Applicants were assessed by an independent panel on their artistic merit, professional skills and experience, the suitability of their proposed program in relation to their artistic practice, and the significance of the program to their career...."

   2. 2014 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: DARK HEART     23 exhibiting artists - 7 female artists - 15 male artists - 1 collaborative group Adelaide Biennial is an exhibition at the other end of the professional spectrum to the NSW Emerging Artist Fellowship. CoUNTess has addressed this bi-annual curated exhibition in previous posts - and unfortunately this show has mostly favoured male artists with one exception in 2004 when curated by Julie Robinson.   The AGSA announces the exhibition is about difficult conversations and the guest speaker will be Germaine Greer!   CoUNTess has a difficult question - why so few women artists? From the Art Gallery of South Australia's website 

‘In its 13th iteration the Biennial will tap into the hearts and minds of contemporary Australian society, to explore the political, the psychological and the personal. I am after an inherently emotional and immersive exhibition, one that is unafraid to ask difficult questions and expose the underbelly of society.’ Nick Mitzevich curator  The theme of difficult conversations runs throughout the biennial. This will be presented in the exhibition publication which will feature an essay by Australia’s most controversial expatriate, Germaine Greer. 

3. Melbourne Now NGV  28 initial artists announced on NGV website - 8 female artists - 14 male artists + (5designers 4 of whom are women and 1 male)

CoUNTess is looking forward to seeing the full list of over 130 participating artists. In the meantime we had to make do with the initial list, which is being released in stages and published on the NGV website ... 

Melbourne Now celebrates the latest art, architecture, design, performance and cultural practice to reflect the complex cultural landscape of creative Melbourne. This ambitious and far-reaching exhibition across NGV Australia and NGV International will show how visual artists and creative practitioners have profoundly contributed to creating a place with a unique and dynamic cultural identity.

While CoUNTess's focus is always on the contemporary artists gender representation, it is obvious the greater percentage of women participants in Melbourne Now at this point are designers.  While the majority of contemporary artists in Melbourne Now at this point are male artists.  Is this also a situation of just not enough women artists with "artistic merit"? How can these gender representation numbers make sense when they sit in stark contrast to the fact that the gender distribution of fine art graduating students (the pool of artists) are 70% women. We hope this initial published artists participant list will not reflect the gender representation in the full show when it opens in November.  Because the very real-world outcome of unequal gender representation is unequal distribution of funds and thats a very real pay gap? 4. Primavera - Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 4 female artists, 4 male artists Just so your spirits are not completely disheartened there are some exhibitions that manage equal gender representation and Primavera 2013 is one.

This much-loved annual exhibition (turning 22 this year!) returns to our galleries with the next crop of unapologetically bold makers, thinkers and performers. Hailing from Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, the work of these eight young Australian artists will delight and fascinate. 

5. The Wandering: Moving Images from the MCA Collection 15 exhibiting artists : 4 female artists (one is a collaborative duo), 10 male artists Unfortunately another current MCA project can not claim the same gender equality outcome as Primavera.  This exhibition The Wandering is a touring show of works purchased by the MCA for their collection of 14 moving image works by 4 female artists (one being a collaborative duo) and 10 male artists. This collection based show would either suggest that the MCA doesn't appear to have a gender equity policy and therefore haven't seen the need to collect moving image work by women or they do purchase moving image work by women but they choose not to show it? Either way this example shows how the work of women artists is undervalued and under represented. The blurb from the MCA website about this show claims;

The Wandering: Moving images from the MCA Collection takes us on a unique journey through contemporary Australian art. The immediacy of moving image provides opportunities for art to engage with audiences in ways that are different to static, more traditional mediums, such as painting and sculpture. The exhibition presents artworks recently acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia by 15 leading artists

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Female artists only one quarter of artists in - 21st Century : Art in the First Decade @ GOMA - How representative is it?

  Gender of artists in exhibition 21st Century : Art in the First Decade at GOMA 2011.

Why stop counting ... onto another survey style exhibition this time at GOMA in Brisbane 21st Century: Art in the First Decade! Sounds important. The GOMA website states:

This summer 2010–11, to mark the end of the first decade of this millennium, the Gallery presents ‘21st Century: Art in the First Decade’. This ambitious and ground-breaking exhibition will occupy the entire Gallery of Modern Art and focus exclusively on works created between 2000 and 2010. It will showcase more than 200 works and feature over 140 artists and artist collaborative groups – senior, mid-career and emerging – from more than 40 countries.

The website provides a list of artists which we were able to identify as female artists = 28, male artists=68, and 8 groups. Not much to say here just the same old same old. We threw a date of birth chart in for good measure.

Date of birth and gender of artists in exhibition 21st Century : Art in the First Decade at GOMA 2011.

Women Artists in 21st Century : Art in the First Decade @ GOMA

| Louise BOURGEOIS (France/United States)| Candice BREITZ (South Africa)| Justine COOPER (Australia/United States)| Angela DE LA CRUZ (Spain/England)| Nathalie DJURBER1 (Sweden)| Latifa ECHAKHCH (Morocco/France)| Tracey EMIN (England)| Monir Shahroudy FARMANFARMAIAN (Iran)| Parastou FOROUHAR (Iran)| Andrea FRASER (United States)| Sally GABORI (Kaiadilt people, Australia)| Katharina GROSSE (Germany)| Fiona HALL (Australia)| Emily JACIR (Palestine/United States)| Bharti KHER (India)| Anastasia KLOSE (Australia)| Yvonne KOOLMATRIE (Ngarrindjeri people, Australia) | Susanne KRIEMANN (Germany)| Yayoi KUSA1A (Japan)|Gabriella MANGANO & Silvana MANGANO (Australia)| Almagul MENLIBAYEVA (Kazakhstan)| Tracey MOFFATT (Australia/United States)| Rivane NEUENSCHWANDER (Brazil)| Fiona PARDINGTON (New Zealand)| Paola PIVI (Italy)| Jana STERBAK (Czech Republic/Canada)| Mitra TABRIZIAN (Iran/England)| Kara WALKER (United States)| Louise WEAVER (Australia)

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2004 - 2012 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art

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News

Unequal gender representation in the arts is regular news these days and CoUNTess hopes this media spot light continues.

In the theatre world the actions of The Australian Women Directors Alliance have brilliantly addressed a path of responsibility towards the effort to change the systematic lack of opportunities afforded women wishing to pursue careers in theatre. That old chestnut EEO has been put to good use and through the governance of Melbourne University the MTC can perhaps begin to unpack assertions vis a vis quality not quotas with some understanding of the construction of artistic merit flowing through recognisedcareer paths it turns out are not exactly accessible to all.

When Barbara Striesand introduced the 2010 Oscar for best director with "the moment has come ... its Kathryn Bigalow", she announced the first woman to win the directors Academy Award in its 82 year history a point which was large part of the pre and post event commentary. Meanwhile the 2010 Archibald Portrait Prize an event which apparently likes to court controversy has gained most media attention for its lack of women artists and subjects, with only 7 artists of the 34 finalists are women, and 4 of the portraits depict women appears particuarly extreeme. Down from 2009 with 11 women and 29 male artists and 26 portraits of men and 13 of women.

CoUNTess got to thinking about quality and quotas. The Indian government see quotas as a way forward and have passed a bill in parliament that one third (why not half?) of legislative seats be reserved for women which must be a powerful incentive for women in India. Seeing one woman succeed has a different effect from seeing many. And it is here that this post gets down to the counting.

Wack, Global Feminisms, and most recently Elles at the Pompideu Centre have been some of the most radical and memorable exhibitions this decade due to their very existence in such high profile museums these shows have raised a new awareness in the art viewer to question the politics and taste valuing of the artworld and culture industries. The Pompidou website describes Elles;

For the first time in the world, a museum will be displaying the feminine side of its own collections. This new presentation of the Centre Pompidou's collections will be entirely given over to the women artists from the 20th century to the present day. elles@centrepompidou is the third thematic exhibition of the National Modern Art Museum's collections, following Big Bang in 2005 and the Mouvement des Images (Image Movements) in 2006-2007. This will be the occasion for the institution, which has built up the very first collection of modern and contemporary art, to show its commitment to women artists, nationality and discipline taken together, and place them at the core of modern and contemporary art of the 20th and 21st centuries.

In the Guardian:

This exhibition would have been impossible to mount even five years ago, according to curator Camille Morineau - the museum simply did not have enough work by women. This, she admits, was partly due to a lack of interest by former curators. But thanks to an attitude change at the Pompidou, 40% of its art by women was bought within the last four years and none of it has been borrowed from other galleries. "We've been buying more female artists,"

and

The gesture, it seems, has already inspired the Museum of Modern Art. Morineau says the New York institution was initially sceptical of elles@pompidou, but it is now working on a new publication, Individuals: Women artists in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. After its release next year, it will also focus on some of its own women artists, with each curatorial department devoting a significant portion, and in some cases all, of its collection galleries to them.

Amazing! But how would such a project fare here in Australia? What work by women artists are in our museum collections? CoUNTess has looked at the following collecting museums in Australia National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria and theArt Gallery of New South Wales who all handily have their collections online although each site organizes the content in various ways so in the interests of creating a comparable sample CoUNTess has counted all Australian artworks acquired since 2000.

This graph shows the percentage of male and female artists in the three museum collections NGV, NGA, AGNSW acquired since 2000

These are the actual numbers of artworks collected by NGV, NGA, AGNSW since 2000

It would appear that an Australian women artists show at this juncture might be a bit thin on the ground. Collections are amassed not only through purchase directly by the museum but also through collectors and foundations purchasing work and gifting it to the museum, in some cases such as the large donation by Joseph Brown to the NGV in 2004 was substantially historical Australian paintings by men, while in other cases the artist donates the works themselves.

At the end of the day these collections write the art histories of today and tomorrow, a purchase or donation of an artists work into a museum collection increases its market value and its chances of being shown in public in the future. A museum or comparable private collection (or private museum) is the top of the success pile for artists. So where do museums and private collectors buy their art - that will be in commercial galleries. Stay tuned, CoUNTess will examine the gender breakdown in Australia's commercial galleries.

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Venice Biennale 2009

The CoUNTess has just returned from touring the 53rd Venice Biennale with a dismal number of representation of women artists to report. This first post is counting the artists who were selected to exhibit in the national pavillions. Women artists were 46 out to a total of 189 thats 24.3%. The national pavillions may have a single solo artist or assemble a range of artists or curate a group show. Eleven national pavillions held solo shows by women artists in total 27.5% while 29 men went solo for their country or 72.5% .  The CoUNTess believes that pavillions who hosted large group shows have no excuse for not including women in them these were the worst offenders; Italy - 17 men and 2 women, China - 7 men and 0 women, Denmark and Nordic Countries - 18 men and 5 women, Azerbaijan - 7 men and 1 woman, Croatia - 3 men and 0 women, Syrian Arab Republic - 9 men and 0 women and Istituto Italo-Latino Americano pavillion has 13 men and 2 women.  As all these artists have been individually selected by their countries (who have an official pavillion of course) one would have to conclude that female artists are unfashionable right now. Very unfashionable at 24.3% thats not even a quarter. We will crunch the numbers in our next post of the exhibition curated by the Biennale director Daniel Birnbaum Making Worlds.

2009 Venice Biennale has only 46 women artists in the national pavillions 24.3% of the total number of 189 artists. 

pink is a wedge in a sea of blue Its a mans world when it comes to representing your country solo

While The CoUNTess loves to pour over the CV section of those giant catalogues they are a bitch to cart home so the counting for this post has been conducted online. Names must be clarified, genders distinguished. A pattern emerged where if gender wasn't mentioned in the first two paragraphs of an artists bio it was more likely an article about a woman artist, a fact often buried deep in paragraph four or five. A new category has emerged as The CoUNTess wonders why so few women artists and added a graph to look at both age and gender breakdown. What age is an artist most likely to be selected to exhibit in this world cup of art events? Those CV's are like racing guides.  There is a group whose dates of birth could not be determined. The youngest artists are born in the 1980's and this category is pretty even with women artists making up 44%. The women born in the 70's are the largest group in the womens total but still only represent 35% of all artists in this age bracket. The largest group of artists showing in this years 53rd Venice Biennale national pavillions are those born in the 1960's these artists are now 40-50 years old and would be considered mid-career and established and a relatively safe selection. In this group it is astonishing that women only make up 15% while men make up 84%. Living women artists having so little representation in this influential age group is so disappointing. Women a generation older and born in the 1950's having developed in the 80's and 90's when feminism made its strongest impact in the artworld seem to have retained some foothold representing 25%. The category of senior artists born prior to 1950 includes only 1 women artist Gayane Khachaturian of Armenia born in 1942, while there were 17 senior male artists. This last category really suggests a bleak future for all women artists and artists in general. While the median age for a woman artist is 35 before the graph heads south and you want to yell "women don't just stop making art at 40" but wonder is this the forensic site of a feminist backlash right there in those numbers. With these numbers what could the future be for the legacy and tradition of women artists?  EXHIBITING WOMEN ARTISTS IN NATIONAL PAVILLIONS AT 53RD VENICE BIENNALE 2009

Gayane Khachaturian - Armenia

Claire Healy - Australia

Elke Krystufek - Austria

Dorit Margreiter - Austria

Franziska Weinberger - Austria

Naila Sultan - Azerbaijan

Thora Dolven Balka - Denmark and Nordic Countries

Laura Horelli - Denmark and Nordic Countries

Klara Liden - Denmark and Nordic Countries

Nina Saunders - Denmark and Nordic Countries

Kristina Norman - Estonia

Owanto - Republic of Gabon

Nadine Hilbert - Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Sarah Browne - Ireland

Elisa Sighicelli - Italy

Miwa Yanagi - Japan

Haegue Yang - Korea

Evelina Deicmane - Latvia

Teresa Margolles - Mexico

Fathiya Tahiri - Morocco

Fiona Tan - The Netherlands

Judy Millar - New Zealand

Francis Upritchard - New Zealand

Andrea Faciu - Romania

Gosha Ostretsov - Russia

Irina Korina - Russia

Marialuisa Tadei - Republic of San Marino

Nico Macina - Republic of San Marino

Elisa Monaldi - Republic of San Marino

Michela Pozzi - Republic of San Marino

Thea Tini - Republic of San Marino

Katarina Zdjelar - Serbia

Silvia Bachli - Switzerland

Sudsiri Pui-ock - Thailand

wantanee Siripattananuntakul - Thailand

Banu Cennetoglu - Turkey

Lanava Gargash - United Arab Emerates

Gabriela Croes - Venezuela

Magdalena Fernindez - Venezuela

Bernardita Rakos - Venezuela

Antonieta Sosa - Venezuela

Oksana Shatalova - Kazakhstan

Yelena Vorobyeva - Kazakhstan

Ermek Jaenisch - Kyrgyzstan

Sandra Gamarra - Peru

Raquel Paiewonsky - Dominican Republic

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Staff Room

This week the CoUNTesses @blogspot.com are out there asking for directions to the nearest pathway to success. As the Grad Show numbers come in the CoUNTesses at the office have been browsing web sites of the said art schools to discover the gender breakdown of staff. CoUNTess has discovered how poorly designed some of these university web sites are while trying to find the visual art departments only three had their own distinct web identity so it was quite tricky. Therefore it was also difficult to find out who the various staff were at each artschool. CoUNTess has also been told that university sites are not so very up to date and therefore they are not reflective of the vast numbers of casual or short contract staff employed.

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So without access to all this information we have no definitive numbers on the gender breakdown of staff at Australian art schools to bring to you in this post. But we can share with you the art departments we were able to find as the results could indicate the most positive outcome so far for women artists - 58% women and 42% men.

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COUNTERREVOLUTION: RETURNS TO FORM

Biennale of Sydney 1998 - 2008

One of the exhibitions that heralded the call to action for the CoUNTesses @blogspot.com in 2008 was the Sydney Biennale, Revolutions: Forms that Turn curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev. BOS2008.com (no .au ? it must be international) website describes the curatorial concept of the exhibition;

Billed this year as a celebration of the defiant spirit, the exhibition will bring together some of the most revolutionary artists the world has ever known alongside the shining stars of today. The theme of the 16th Biennale, Revolutions – Forms That Turn, suggests the impulse to revolt, a desire for change, and seeing the world differently.

This was the third Sydney Biennale out of 16 that have been curated by a woman, previously Isabel Carlos in 2004 and Lynne Cooke in 1996. CoUNTess was of the assumption that with a woman curator, the revolutionary theme and the idea of seeing the world differently there would be a healthy contingent of women artists in the show. Not so. This revolution was spinning off its axis as far as gender representation is concerned, with the lowest percentage of woman artists over the previous ten years. The prior 11 Biennales are currently being researched, and we will continue this thread as soon as the full numbers come in. 

Biennale of Sydney 1998 - 2008

For women artists the sun looks to be setting on a long night, a dark age shall we say, as the vast majority of the "shining stars" lighting our way from "the most revolutionary artists the world has ever known" are men. With a gender split of 74% men and 26% women it is no wonder so many of the reviews and publicity surrounding the Sydney Biennale also predominantly focused on the work of men.

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I am not a feminist until...

The discussion, as we drizzle back in with summer glows to the CoUNTess offices have been about the feedback received since starting the blog. Some responses have been made in the comments, others emailed directly to count.esses@gmail.com, and fellow art lovers have told us how CoUNTess has been making impressions in a variety of ways from student discussions to gallery board meetings. To the war monger we say no we are not starting a war. We are flattered though that CoUNTess is seen as a rival faction just for reminding art lovers how skewered the gender balance in the art world is. CoUNTesses goal is to get art lovers thinking about gender representation, noticing it, and saying something. CoUNTesses motto is to speak up and raise awareness of the situation so that curators, editors, galleristas, writers and artists will think twice about how they view and select the art we all get to see. With the world wide financial crisis going down, CoUNTess is not the only mob taking account of over-hyped markets. Another punter asked what gender balance would make CoUNTess happy? The answer to that question is no less than 50/50 would be perfectly fine with us. We want a vast improvement on the imbalance we have so far counted which seems to be around 35% women and 65% men. Why should women artists and the art loving public be satisfied with a third?  Fred Friendly's suggested CoUNTess might be looking for stats that support our opinion of gender imbalance and we need to widen our research. We believe our numbers are straight and we can assure you we are sitting on no evidence so far that tells a different story. The CoUNTesses are up for the challenge. We have quite a few projects on the boil in 2009. A sneak preview of these stats seems to suggest that while women dominate the numbers of art students, they represent an equal 50% of the artists exhibiting in artist run spaces, about only 30% in commercial galleries and art journals, and up to 40% in public contemporary art spaces. The glass ceiling is completely visible. It is the elephant in the room that nobody talks about. Well not any more.

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Is The Artlife "just like saying the boys life"?

The CoUNTesses @ blogspot.com have cast a gendered eye over the most popular art blog in Australia, The Art Life to see where they stand as far as gender representation is concerned. The Art Life blog began in February 2004 under a cloak of anonymity, an independent voice critiquing art, curators, galleries and the art media. Five years later it has practically become an institution and now has its own television show. Sadly we have discovered that gender balance for the Artlife is just like most other art media and follows the old familiar conventions where male artists make up the majority of their content. CoUNTess wonders why this fact always goes unmentioned. CoUNTess has counted the last twelve months of Artlife's 178 posts which can be categorized into the following groups; artlices about single artists, artists mentioned in general articles, attributed images, interviewed artists, new work artists and videos by and about artists. There were 18 articles that were primarily about a single artist only 3 were about women artists; Linda Marrinon, Fiona Hall and Adrian Piper while male artists were the subject of 15 posts; Ai Weiwei, Bill Viola, Michael Riley, Darren Sylvester, Callum Innes, Frank Littler, Bill Henson (like a milion times) David Mandella, Cai Guo-Qiang, Sam Leach, Otto Dix, Martin Creed etal. These posts are generally in response to the museum shows or retrospectives and most are "branded" A-list artists who have already passed through several gate keepers, they are artists accepted and shown by mainstream and superstar dealers and are on the whole considered "international", or even the most collectable on our national scale.  One would assume from the evidence the current natural order be that the majority of these types of shows and artists are men. But it is still interesting how this idea is reinforced in the general language and context the reception that their work recieves. For example the wistful not quite there yet tone of the first paragraph on Linda Marrinon;

They come loitering down a runway, into Linda Marrinon’s sixth solo show Figure Sculpture II at Roslyn Oxley9 [until March 1]. Beautiful troopers that they are, it’s hard not to wish for a battalion rather than the mere eleven figures that carry on from the sculptor’s last figure collection. But perhaps there’s something about the exclusivity of the bevy that adds to its sense of preciousness, a gem-like quality that makes these little (mostly) women seem as if they’ve been dug up from the earth after years of rest.

compared to the gushfest on Darren Sylvester

Mister Darren Sylvester's exhibition of photographic prints, painting and sculpture at Sullivan & Strumpf [until Saturday] is a beguiling and seductive collection of art poised, like a plastic surgeon's scalpel, over the skin of contemporary life. This is a remarkable show of sophistry by an artist working so deeply in the realm of double blinded irony and signifier play that the possibility of meaning has become vertiginous. Yet this is no simple retreat from a task many of his peers shun as too difficult. The disavowal of meaning, particularly in contemporary photographic work is a familiar trope, often consisting of nothing but a refusal to commit to anything more than the surface of the print. We are all familiar with this type of work. Vistas of banality that resort to arguments of reflection to justify their contempt for depth.

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While the single artist articles make up about 10% of the total posts, the majority of Artlife articles review large museum shows or survey a number of exhibitions. In these posts we counted the times an artist was mentioned as the subject or reference in the article (each artists was only counted once per article) Individual women artists were mentioned 63 times, while male artists were mentioned 205 times.  Of note in this category are the reviews/responses to the Biennale of Sydney. In the interview with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev she claims

So as a feminist I've never done an exhibition of art by women, it think that's anti-feminist to do that. I mean I would never do an exhibition about the sensibility of an – only artists who are gay, for example, I would never do that, I find that racist, I find that wrong. So my way of being um, against those ah … inequalities which I think there are, my way of doing it is not to, to isolate and celebrate, I think that’s hypocritical. But to break the boundaries and bring together, that's what I like to do.

If the biennale revolutions were to break boundaries and bring together they had little to do with the work of women artists in the show. In all the reviews responses to the Biennale of Sydney posted on The Art Life there were only four women mentioned; Lia Perjovschi, Destiny Deacon, Tracy Moffatt and one work that was critiqued that of Adrian Piper. While the work of 11 male artists in the biennale were mentioned and discussed including William Kentridge (3 times), Mike Parr (3 times) Vernon Ah Kee (twice), Pierre Huyghe (twice), Nedko Solakov (twice) Malevich (twice) and Richard Bell, Giuseppe Penone, Stuart Ringholt, Robert Smithson and Ross Gibson. There were also two articlesWhere is Philip Gunston, and Much More Than WYSIWYG that wonder why two male painters works are not included in the show. Countess feels the more pressing question is why only 26% or a quarter of the artists in the show were women? Two other post categories are New Work and interviews. In these categories the featured artists provide the text and images for the articles. In New Work; 10 were by women artists and 13 by male artists while the interviews have been with 7 women artists and 6 male artists making these the two most balanced categories. It is interesting that these categories where the artist has a voice come out so gender equal, why would this be? Is it because the art writers function is to generate approval and sanction an artists career and in the process ensure future employment from editors and university research points for backing the winning horse and thereby ensuring ongoing relevance? 

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The images counted are of all the attributed images showing an artists artwork and include the images from press releases in the Exhibition What's On category (a category impossible to count in terms of gender as they are made up of press releases for all manner of group and solo shows). Over the past 12 months there have been 61 images by women artists and 115 images by male artists. The CoUNTesses are unclear if The Artlife publish all submissions to the Whats On category but we have counted the images never the less as they still expose an artists work to the blogs readership. http://youtu.be/HvUKPhT5jHA  Embedded videos have also been counted - the videos have been attributed to men if they are work by male artists as well as about male artists which total 32, while videos about or by women artists total 7. CoUNTess invites readers to count previous years of The Art Life posts under the same categories and we will publish the results.

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Broadsheet / September 2008 / Volume 37.3

Since The Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (CACSA) showed up as the most dismally lopsided of equal opportunity exhibition spaces, the CoUNTesses @ blogspot.com have decided to take our counting markers to its publicly funded magazine BROADSHEET. CoUNTess picked up the current issue Broadsheet / September 2008 / Volume 37.3, with a view to investigating how much coverage is given to male artists vs female artists. The most direct method was to simply count the names of every artist discussed and referenced in the text (Individual artists were only counted once in each article. Curators, directors, writers and musicians were not counted).  The shameful result... Male artists receive 178 mentions, female artists...43. Ouch. But seeing as the Australian members of the Advisory Board total 8 males, 0 females, perhaps not too surprising. Broadsheet, you have been counted! Below is a breakdown of our Broadsheet findings. Editor  Male 1 Advisory Board (International and Australian) Male 16 Female 4 Advisory Board (Australian only) Male 8 Female 0 Contributors to Broadsheet Volume 37.3 Male 10 Female 5 Content Artists discussed and referenced in text. Individual artists were only counted once in each article. Curators, directors, writers and musicians were not counted. Male artists 178 mentions Female artists 43 mentions Cover image* Male 1 Female 1 * artist collaborators

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Missing in action 

CoUNTess is so excited about the graduating shows opening all over Australia in the next couple of weeks, those slaved over fund raised catalogues will provide the hard copy for counting the gender balance of art school graduates. Some of our advance orders have already arrived in the CoUNTess offices. CoUNTess is often hearing how women make up between 70-90% of students at Australian art schools. If this figure is true then why is it not reflected in the numbers of artists shown in artist run spaces, public and commercial galleries and museums so far our figures say 40% at best. Many women artists have a whole career without mention in an art magazines where on average women make up 30 % of the artists featured.

Features in Australian art magazines October 2008

Why? Does seeing others of same gender succeed or fail influence an artist’s ambition? A typical rant on an artschools web site says

However, as the discipline is charged with a responsibility for the education of professional visual artists, it is ultimately judged by the quality and proportion of its graduates who regularly and successfully exhibit in public and commercial galleries in Australia and throughout the world.

The institutions should really be a little more upfront with their female students as clearly when they graduate they are not achieving the levels of their male peers? Its like one giant scam. Female visual art graduates future opportunities compare shamefully to women in otherfemale dominated fields where the gender imbalance is actually reflected in the professional workplace. CoUNTess wonders if the whole of art education has become a sausage factory where a few bureaucrats are milking vast numbers of student supplicants to feed their own need for employment. Should we be training so many female artists at art school, when there is not much opportunity for them as artists in the art world? Annika Strom thinks not. In the last issue of Frieze Issue 119 (Feature articles: 9 male artists, 3 female artists) she is the respondent in the regular questionnaire column on the last page.

What should change? The ongoing resistance of art museums to buying art made by women. Also, I would like to see more big solo shows by women before they're dead, and 90 percet less admission for women to art schools, as I am sick of teaching them while knowing they probably won't have their work displayed in any big museums or bought for major collections. Obviously women at art schools are a waste of taxpayers' money.

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Agency CoUNTess

On the occassion of an exhibition in Melbourne at the sulubrious Carlton Hotel titled Girls Girls Girls, CoUNTess announced her arrival in Oz on the back cover of the exhibition catalogue zine. The Countesses @ blogspot site meter has been spinning ever since. CoUNTess may be polymorphous but is completely straight laced when it comes to the numbers. As perverse as they are it is the numbers that tell the real story of the unequal conditions that women artists in Australia are operating within.  CoUNTess has welcomed new field operatives who love to count the gender representation in thier local nooks and crannies of the artworld. If you are interested in contributing to Countess we would love to hear from you email. Already whistle blowers are sending in tips from all corners of the nation some quite upset and irate about the overwhelming exclusion of women from so many exhibitions and wonder what they can do about it. CoUNTess says a problem shared is a problem halved and there is nothing gained not talking talking about it. No point waiting for Jerry Springer to expose the matter publicly, or Judge Judy to deliver a verdict.  A balanced gender representation in the art world is not to much to expect. If your locally publicly funded gallery is showing less than 50% female artists write a message of complaint to the gallery director, your local member, the galleries funding bodies. Thats what the CoUNTesses @ blogspot.com are busy doing.  CoUNTess has always said that change is possible? Now we have Bob the Builder and Barack Obama claiming they can fix it and change things too. And we all agree; YES WE CAN

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Balancing the books 

The usual breathtaking views from Countesses office are being obstructed by piles of papers in addition to post it notes on every surface and calculators crunching underfoot.  But this blog is not about OH&S its about gender representation in the Australian artworld. There has been a mountain of research to get through in the quest to compile the numbers and we are all out of pink and blue highlighters.  The CoUNTesses @ blogspot.com have decided to sort our excel spread sheet into bite size chunks. "First things first, but not necessarily in that order" as Dr Who wisely said. The CoUNTesses @ blogspot.com have visited the websites of one mid sized publicly funded contemporary art gallery from each state and added up the number of women and men who have exhibited in the gallery's main space from the first show in 2007 to September 2008.   We haven't included the offsite projects and spaces, graduate exhibitions or competitions and they will be the subject of future posts. The main gallery spaces host solo and curated group shows and are major milestones in an artists exhibiting career and all the galleries reviewed accepted proposals for their exhibition programs. And no we haven't forgotten the Apple Isle, but Cast in Hobart has missed out this time as their website is under construction. The CoUNTesses @ blogspot.com wants to take this opportunity to encourage female artists in Australia to send off those applications for exhibitions in these 'artspaces' as we have discovered there is a huge gap in the market that needs urgent redressing.  With the exception of 24Hr Art in Darwin who exhibited more women then men, the next rating approaching an equal balance was Gertrude Contemporary Artspaces in Melbourne with 60% men and 40% women, and CACSA were the worst offenders with 77% men and 23% women. The CoUNTesses suggest these organisations EEO policies should be seriously reviewed as EEO is an outcome not a procedure.  Otherwise could somebody please explain this gender discrepancy? The CoUNTesses @ blogspot.com expect only the highest quality work to be exhibited so are rightfully suspicious that it is men as a group who are consistently given these exhibition opportunities. If the galleries are programing exhibitions of the highest quality are they declaring that men make better art than women? Then why so few women artists? Is it a question of talent and ambition or just plain old fashioned discrimination?   The Australia Council sets an excellent example and equally awards individual grants to men and women artists which proves it can be done without causing a major taste crisis.  The CoUNTesses @ blogspot.com thinks these artspaces and all public galleries should be expected to do the same. Balance the books.

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Out for the count

CoUNTess is here and has been doing some overdue statistical research confirming what many have been discussing, too quietly, the systematic gender inequality in the art world. The art world is global but we thought we would start local, even regional in the quest to examine the truth behind the serious representational gender inequality at every level of the art training production marketing consuming system. CoUNTess awaits with anticipation Art Express 2009 but in the meantime was wondering which artists high school students are being exposed to in the class room. We discovered an initiative by the Kaldor Art Projects who have produced in partnership with the Curriculum Directorate of the NSW Department of Education & Training a DVD resource for high school students called MOVE Video Art in Schools. The aim of the resource is to aquaint and inspire students with the new art form of VIDEO.  Excuse me ... Can someone at either of these organisations explain to CoUNTess why all the "commissioned" artists in this high school resource are men? CoUNTess would always encourage such resources to champion gender equality, considering that no less than half of visual art students in high school are women.  CoUNTess would be happy to enter in on this exclusive partnership to create future resourses for higher education, the first could be titled MOVE OVER you don't have to be male to make video art. CoUNTess also has a vast network of fabulous video artists who are women as we understand the organizers of these kind of resources might have trouble finding many women artists to choose from in Australia's commercial galleries and public spaces. But you will find the nations artschools overflowing with women, as the majority of students and the minority of teaching/research staff, but those numbers will be crunched in future posts in the search for the location of the glass ceiling. CoUNTess couldn't help but notice that the commissioned artists in the Kaldor resource are all represented by commercial galleries: Anna Schwartz (23men/15 women), Rosyln Oxley9 (17 men/22 women), Barry Keldoulis (13 men/7 women), Grant Pirrie (10 men/5 women). Now CoUNTess is still pouring over the commercial gallery statistics and very much looking forward to asking the questions as to why are men proportionally over represented in commerical art galleries, competitions and awards and very importantly why should mens art be worth more than women's?