You’ve heard of a “phenom,” but today we’re talking “shenoms”. Female artists are killing it in today’s global art market, to nobody’s surprise. Personally, I’m thrilled and somewhat vindicated, as my recommendations to collectors as their art advisor have always been gender-blind. In fact, as someone who looks for value in the Contemporary art market, female artists have been my long-time value play. But things are changing––maybe not as fast as we’d like, but still….
FLASHBACK to 1950
Act one, scene one: Jackson Pollock splatters paint around a canvas laid out on the floor of his Hamptons barn. The photographer Hans Namuth documents the action. These now-iconic photos illustrate a 1951 Art News article, Pollock Paints a Picture. The next year, those same snaps informed critic Harold Rosenberg’s famous Art News essay, The American Action Painters, which made Pollock famous.
And what about the painter Lee Krasner, the artist’s wife? Just look where she sits: in the corner.
Q. What happens to Krasner after Pollock dies, drunk, in a car crash?
A. She paints her best picture ever: The Eye is the First Circle, 1960. In 2019, that breakthrough painting––which is massive, and freely painted with incredible figuration embedded in abstract strokes and drips––sold for $11.7 million at auction to one of the top private museums in the country, Glenstone. The price more than doubled Krasner’s previous record set in 2017, when Shattered Light, 1954, sold for $5.5 million.
Take away: After a long sleep, momentum is building for female artists.
FAST FORWARD ⏩ 1970
The Feminist movement cracks the glass ceiling. In 1971, Professor Linda Nochlin, a total shero (and my grad school professor), wrote the groundbreaking essay, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? For the first time, Nochlin explained the power structures that kept female artists down: namely, the cabal of male museum directors, male museum trustees, male critics, and male curators, who ignored female artists in favor of their male peers. Nochlin opened the gate for Feminists everywhere to focus on female artists.
FAST FORWARD ⏩ 1980
And then things got even wilder.
In 1985, 7 female artists donned gorilla masks to anonymously protest outside MoMA. They called out the museum for having only 13 women out of 165 artists in their current survey. Naming themselves the Guerrilla Girls, they vocally advocated for female artists all over the USA, increasing awareness of the art world’s gender imbalance.
And yet *sigh* progress is slow. For example, in 2015 only 7% of MoMA’s permanent collection were female artists. 😓
But the pace is accelerating: in 2019, that number jumped to 28%!
Q: Why has the pace accelerated?
A: Women increasingly have the power.
Snacks always taste better when you share yours with a friend! Go ahead, there’s more.
FAST FORWARD ⏩ 1990
Enter The Millennial Woman, a new era of talent 🎉
While poverty and racial inequality remain serious obstacles for female artists, Millennial women are on average (according to the Price Waterhouse Cooper’s Women in Work Index 2021):
More highly educated than Boomers 🎓
Have higher levels of career ambition and confidence 💁♀️
Believe in diversity, equality, and workforce inclusion 🤝
Increasingly, are the breadwinners 🏆
Take away: More women open galleries with a diverse and inclusive roster of artists. More female artists become professionalized, graduating from top MFA programs around the country and often quote, in their work, overlooked female artists from the past, bringing them into the public eye. Everyone wins!
FAST FORWARD ⏩ 2020
According to the 2021 Art Basel Report, 61% of all art dealers are women.
Women make up 41% of all artists represented by global galleries. That number jumps to 48% if the artist is emerging. The trend is towards gender parity.
Take away: In 2020, galleries that represented more female artists reported a higher level of sales, despite an overall decline in sales due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Q: Who’s buying all this art?
A: Millennial (FEMALE) spenders!
According to the 2021 Art Basel Report, Millennials were the highest spenders on art in 2020, with 30% having spent over $1 million (versus 17% of Boomers).
Male buyers spent marginally more in 2019 ($147,000 versus $136,000), but female collectors spent more in 2020.
The number of female billionaires has more than doubled in 10 years (to over 250 in 2020).
And female HNW* collectors’ spending on art rose 13%, leading their male counterparts in the US, the UK, France, and Mainland China in 2020.
MARKET PREDICTIONS 🔮
The 2021 Art Basel Report states that Millennials may inherit anywhere between $20 to $70 trillion from billionaire and UHNW** parents by 2030 in wealth and assets (that includes art) in what has been termed the ‘great wealth transfer’. (p.141)
If this is true, and Millennials continue to buy art at their current pace, there will be plenty of ka-ching to support up-and-coming (female) artists!
*HNW (high net worth, i.e. RICH)
**UHNW (ultra high net worth, i.e. CRAZY RICH)
SHOW YOU THE MONEY 💰
In the past 5-10 years, auction prices have accelerated for a diverse roster of female artists. Since the press covers auctions (unlike gallery sales, which are private), this brings public attention to female artists. High prices at auction publicly validate success!
The 9 Most Expensive Living Female Artists at Auction
Jenny Saville (b. 1970) - Propped, 1992 sold for $12.4 million at Sotheby’s in 2018––setting the record for the most expensive painting by a living female artist at auction. Saville is the reigning queen 👑 , but the record still pales in comparison to the most expensive work by a living male artist ($91 million for that pesky Rabbit, 1986, by Jeff Koons!)
Julie Mehretu (b. 1970)
Marlene Dumas (b. 1953)
Cecily Brown (b. 1969)
Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929)
Cady Noland (b. 1956)
Cindy Sherman (b. 1957)
Vija Celmins (b. 1938)
Dana Schutz (b. 1976)
6 MAJOR MUSEUM SHOWS OF FEMALE ARTISTS YOU NEED TO VISIT RIGHT NOW
Alice Neel at The Met through August 1 (bonus: see Carol Bove’s work installed on the museum’s facade, no ticket necessary)
Julie Mehretu at the Whitney through August 8
Niki de Saint Phalle at MoMA PS1 through September 6
Louise Bourgeois at The Jewish Museum through September 12
Deana Lawson at the Guggenheim through October 11
Yayoi Kusama at the New York Botanical Garden through October 31
Let’s Link Up 🔗
For an excellent exposé on the overlooked female art scene of the 1950s, Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel, 2019.
If Nochlin’s essay has you feeling inspired, read Lucy Lippard’s From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women’s Art, 1976.
Listen to The Great Women Artists podcast––and the über informative Instagram is a must-follow.