I’ve studied a lot of art history throughout my life, and while I personally do like Pollock’s stuff, it’s worth noting that he would probably not have risen to the same heights if he were female. Gender inequality in art spaces is as blatant as can be, and for every male ‘superhero’ of art, there’s a woman who did the same years earlier, or who was (in some cases) copied by the male artist.
Take, for example, Yayoi Kusama. Kusama created daring and innovative artworks, making them very personal and speaking freely about her mental illnesses and the domestic abuse she endured as a child, painting from the most honest depths of her heart. She was copied by many male artists, who are now revered as being geniuses. Even, at one stage, the wife of a male artist approached her and said, ‘I’m sorry, Yayoi’, because she knew her husband had unashamedly ripped off Kusama’s vision and hard work.
Andy Warhol copied Yayoi Kusama, and didn’t even make an effort to hide it. His Cow Wallpaper piece is a blatant ripoff of Kusama’s Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show. Kusama put her heart and soul into her art, working with repeating images and polka dots as a method of calming the hallucinations she suffered on a daily basis.
With reference to the art theft of Claes Oldenberg, this article describes the following:
[Oldenberg’s] actions caused Kusama to become deeply depressed. So discouraged by the lack of recognition she received for innovating a new kind of sculpture, Kusama would often lock herself in her studio without coming out for days.
Question what you’re taught. Question the legacies of white male artists, who– in some cases– have profited off the talent of women of colour, like Kusama. Racism and sexism allowed Kusama to be pushed off to the side while men took credit for her creativity, and that same bigotry is going strong today. The objectification of women as pieces of art goes hand-in-hand with the erasure of the female gaze in art.
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