<p>Surveys and gallerists say there are green shoots</p>

Anny Shaw

Has the needle moved for women artists in the art market?

<p>There has been much lip service paid to gender equality in the art market, even if the data tells us that the struggle for equal pay among artists is almost at a standstill. However, hope comes from the Art Basel and UBS report <em>A Survey of Global Collecting in 2022</em>, which found that the needle has moved to some degree, with female artists accounting for 42% of works in collections in 2022 compared with 33% in 2018.</p>
<p>While the survey does not conclude that this shift is being solely driven by a specific generation, there is some evidence to suggest that millennials are partly responsible, particularly when it comes to collecting ‘ultra-contemporary’ art created by their peers (born after 1974, according to the definition of the term). According to Artprice, half of the USD 200.9 million hammered at auction for ultra-contemporary art in the first half of 2022 came from 10 artists, seven of them women: Ayako Rokkaku, Flora Yukhnovich, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/10651/Avery-Singer" target="_blank">Avery Singer</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/46901/Mar%C3%ADa-Berr%C3%ADo" target="_blank">María Berrío</a>, Anna Weyant, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/22486/Christina-Quarles" target="_blank">Christina Quarles</a>, and <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/24191/Loie-Hollowell" target="_blank">Loie Hollowell</a>. In Hong Kong in particular, records for some of these artists have been bolstered by Asian collectors under 45.</p>

<p>While some say art history is being
rewritten, others say speculation has been a factor in driving up the prices
for emerging female artists. Chiara Repetto, who runs <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1170/kaufmann-repetto" target="_blank">kaufmann repetto</a> in New
York with her sister Francesca Kaufmann, thinks it’s a bit of both. ‘The market
is smart,’ says Repetto, whose growing stable of artists is predominantly
female. ‘There’s a lot of market potential for the work of women artists,
because their bodies of work are strong, but their prices are still much lower
than their male counterparts.’ At the same time, an emerging generation of
collectors are ‘less affected by bias,’ she adds. ‘It’s important to be aware
of how our differences affect us, but it is refreshing to speak about the work
of female artists without having to specify gender.’</p>

<p>The London-based gallerist <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1424/Pilar-Corrias" target="_blank">Pilar
Corrias</a>, whose roster is two-thirds women, believes there is ‘a genuine desire’
to balance the art historical canon. She says: ‘Many younger collectors are
aware of the numerous inequities that have passed unchallenged for too long. I
think they recognize that change is a collective force, and wish to contribute
to a new way forward.’</p>

<p>Collectors surveyed by Art Basel say that gender ‘plays a minor role in purchasing decisions,’ suggesting instead that the availability of female artists’ works in galleries and auctions shapes the composition of their collections. Foregrounding women can be a fraught path, however. Corrias notes how the response to the Italian curator Cecilia Alemani’s Venice Biennale last year, in which female artists outweighed men both at the Giardini and Arsenale by a ratio of roughly nine to one, was mixed. ‘While many celebrated the predominance of women, some dismissed it as virtue signaling, a politically correct move,’ the dealer says. ‘Correcting deeply entrenched biases will take a long time and requires dogged determination.’</p>
<p>The picture in India concerning emerging artists compared with those who are more established is slightly different. While younger female contemporary artists are challenging the status quo, it is an older generation who are garnering attention, both in museums and the market, according to Amrita Jhaveri, the director of the Mumbai gallery <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/2233/Jhaveri-Contemporary" target="_blank">Jhaveri Contemporary</a>. ‘Increasingly, mature female artists are coming to the fore,’ she says, noting how, for example, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/15770/Arpita-Singh" target="_blank">Arpita Singh</a>’s <em>My Lily Pond </em>(2009) sold at Pundole’s auction house in Mumbai last year for USD 1.18 million. For context, the highest price achieved for a work by an Indian artist – Vasudeo S. Gaitonde – was USD 5.7 million at Saffronart Mumbai in March 2023.</p>

<p>Unsurprisingly, and in step with the
Western art market, the auction market in India remains staunchly male dominated.
For the period 2020-21, men accounted for 84.6% of the total number of artists
at auction, according to the advisory firm Artery India. As Jhaveri points out:
‘Most of the auction houses and secondary market dealerships are run by men.
It’s a boys’ club, with a culture of late nights, drinking, and deals. However,
a large percentage of the galleries operating in the primary market in India
are run by women. This is reflected in their programs in which female artists
are well represented.’</p>
<p>Not only are women relatively well
represented at Jhaveri Contemporary, where 35% of its roster are female
artists, last year, 45% of the gallery’s revenue came from its women. It is a
pattern repeated globally. According to the latest<em> Art Basel and UBS Art
Market Report</em>, having a very low share of female representation was
correlated with low performance in 2022. Galleries with fewer than 20% of
female artists in their programs had ‘stagnant and declining sales’
year-on-year, while sales grew by 21% for those with more than 80% of women.</p>

<p>Millennials may be pushing the agenda
forward in the private sector, but museums are also filling in some of the
gaps. According to Isa Lorenzo, the co-founder of the Manila gallery
<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1440/Silverlens" target="_blank">Silverlens</a>, most of the museum acquisitions she is working on ‘are for the work
of women artists.’ She notes how the practices of the female artists her
gallery represents tend towards community-based projects or incorporate
textiles, assemblages, and other craft-based media. Historically, these kinds
of practices have been considered less important in a market that values
bombastic large-scale works over more domestically sized, contemplative pieces.</p>
<p>The French dealer <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1237/Galerie-Nathalie-Obadia" target="_blank">Nathalie Obadia</a>
suggests that female artists are ‘more attentive to the quality of their work’ and
less inclined to take up space unnecessarily. She explains: ‘Women do not seek
to make spectacularly large-scale works with enormous production costs. In
situations where grandiose works are commissioned to occupy public spaces, male
artists are more compliant, even if it means proposing huge works that don’t
add any artistic meaning.’</p>

<p>When it comes to museum acquisitions
in the US, meanwhile, Repetto says conversations around diversity are
increasingly common, but she notes how boards of trustees and donors with more
antiquated notions of art history have made it harder for institutions to
embrace change. ‘There’s a certain counterbalance to this natural progression
towards female artists,’ she says. Repetto’s observations are borne out in the
data. Last year’s Burns Halperin Report, which explores representation in US
museums and the international art market between 2008 and 2020, showed just how
limited the purchasing power of museums is. The issue of gifts further
complicates this picture: focusing on the breakdown of gifts versus purchases
in museum acquisitions, for female artists, gifts outweigh purchases by 71% to
29%, revealing how much museums rely on donors to shape their collections.</p>
<p>Overall, the Burns Halperin Report
serves as a stark reminder of just how far we have yet to go, noting how, at
the current rate of growth, we won’t see parity in the auction market for work
by female artists until 2053. As Corrias puts it: ‘Many are doing the work, but
we have a long way to go. We cannot afford to become complacent. Our work must
reflect the world that we live in.’</p>

<p>Anny Shaw is a contributing art market editor at The Art Newspaper and author of Resist: Rebellion, Dissent & Protest in Art.</p>
<p>Published on August 3, 2023.</p>
<p>Caption for full-bleed images, from top to bottom: 1.&nbsp;Artwork detail by&nbsp;Laure Prouvost, presented by Galerie Nathalie Obadia at Paris+ par Art Basel 2022. 2.&nbsp;Artwork detail by Katherine Bradford, presented by&nbsp;Campoli Presti, Canada, and kaufmann repetto&nbsp;in the Unlimited sector at Art Basel in Basel 2023. 3. Artwork detail by Yee I-Lann, presented by Silverlens in the Unlimited sector at Art Basel in Basel 2022.&nbsp;4. Artwork detail by Lily van der Stokker, presented by kaufmann repetto at Paris+ par Art Basel 2022.</p>

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