I have not done a blog for a while, just because I have been so busy doing my own curatorial programs. I started this blog because I couldn't get my ideas out there so it's great that I am a busy bee now and hopefully making a difference. Plus the only person who reads this is my beautiful supportive sister. So if anyone else comes across this thank you!!! So this blog is going to be short and sweet. This blog is all about the trouble of having just one woman artist in the collection (or at least one artists being shown).
I recently went on a beautiful holiday to Sorrento, we went because my amazing best friend was getting married. The day was so beautiful and one I will cherish forever.
The next day I and my partner went to Naples for the day. It didn't help that it was hot as hell and with our pasty white skin, we just couldn't take it. So we started our adventure into Naples on a non air con train pack full of tourists and locals. I should have loved it because I love to people watch but that gets really old when you're sticking to a seat that is so uncomfortable, but you don't want to give it up cause the alternative is having many sweaty bodies pressed up against you and nowhere to move (trust me I did it two days before to Pompeii and I thought death would have been a sweeter deal). Of course, I am being dramatic, but you try that train ride for an hour and a half!! We finally got to Naples, unfortunately, I was not impressed. I don't want this to be a hate letter to Naples but all the things you have heard about Naples are true.
The only reason I wanted to go to Naples was to see the National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples. This extremely impressive art museum was sitting on top of a hill in Naples. I can tell you this now, walking up to that museum, in a playsuit was not a fun experience. You have not known struggle until you have tried to take a playsuit off with the sweatiest hands going. The struggle is real!!
The one and the only reason I wanted to go was to see two painting by Artemisia Gentileschi. If you do not know anything about her go to my previous blog and there a little story at how badass she was. I wanted to see her work because how many times can you go to a museum that exhibits art from the masters of Italian painters which includes a woman!!!!
Well, apparently you can't. I went there and a stroll around knowing that she will just appear and my breath with stop and I will become teary because I have walked up a big fucking hill and traveled the globe to see a woman in an art gallery.
She was not there!
I ask my partner,
He doesn't know what I am talking about, I ask one of the members of staff -
Floor 2
I have just been there unless I was just going through the paintings too fast and missed it, but how could I miss it I have studied these painting too much!!! There is a Caravaggio at the end of the floor, like a symbol, this is the end.
There was a room cut off from the public, what was in there? Why wasn't it opened??? Then I realized -
SHE IS IN THAT ROOM!!! THE ONE I CAN'T GET TOO!!!
Finally, I got an honest answer from a very nice man who worked there. One of her works was enclosed in THAT room and the other was in Rome!!
FUCKING ROME I CAME FROM SHINEY ROW TO SEE THIS WOMAN'S WORK!!!!!!!
I decided this day was not mine and myself and my boyfriend had to laugh our heads off, if not I could have been crying into some religious art.
This, of course, is a fun story of bad timing but it's a more serious issue in the art world. WHERE ARE THE WOMEN!! There was not just Artemisia Gentileschi painting for all women, there were other women painting in Italy at the same time, They were just forgotten. I don't want to go to an art gallery or museum to just find the token women, heck! The token black artist, trans artists, gay artists. I do not want to see just white male club anymore and I am sick of going into a gallery because they have one woman artists, I want to go to a gallery and to never raise that question.
I am hopefully going to be starting a serious of art blog about the old and the new in women in the arts. A huge project I want to achieve is getting slightly known female artists even bigger and given them a platform to the world. So I want to use this blog and a jumping point. Also, learning and talking to contemporary women artists. So watch this space!!!
If you think that art galleries and museums should have more women in their collections, email them, send letters or phone them. We need different representation in every gallery and museum nothing should be “stuck in time” we should all evolve.
MAW
