Finally, the women made their mark. More than a hundred years have passed since they were allowed to attend art schools, and now we are left speechless: this is it, really? The presence of men begins to decrease in exhibitions. At the Venice Biennale [qui se tient jusqu’au 23 novembre]as in many other major contemporary art events, women are in the majority.
There is still one question that remains unanswered: motherhood.
Mother or artist, not both
Take for example Tracey Emin, a Briton known for her radical works. Yes, she says, she knows artists – good artists – who have children, but they are only men. The famous Marina Abramovic makes similar comments. Women have, according to her, only one possibility in art: either children or a career. Because art requires all the energy we have, we cannot share it.
The American painter Rebecca Campbell says that she was often told that she would not be a good mother or a good artist, that it was not imaginable that it would be otherwise. In the art world, which likes to call itself tolerant, open to alternative lifestyles, one thing always seems unthinkable: a life with children.
According to a large social study carried out in Austria in 2018, only a quarter of female artists and talent agents decide to have children, less than half of the female population as a whole. Among male artists, it’s not much better; they are 35%.
When genius was masculine
What are the reasons for this?
The history of Western art has always been constructed by men. The genius was masculine and the mothers were in charge of the home, of the emotional warmth necessary for their children and their husbands. Many of these clichés still hold. According to a widely held conception, a man will acquire more maturi