Mar 3, 2023

RISING TO THE TOP AGAINST THE ODDS: Krasner, Schapiro, Spero, Holzer, Sherman, Goldin

Guerrilla Girls, These Galleries Show No More Than 10% Women Artists, poster, 1985

Size: 17 x 22 inches

See more Guerrilla Girls ephemera

 

In honor of Women’s History Month, this week’s newsletter finds inspiration in the Guerrilla Girls’ groundbreaking poster campaign in the 1980s that revealed how under-represented women were in the art world at that time. We’ll turn our attention to our own Artists Page which includes listings for more than 260 artists active between the 1960s and the early 2000s. Let’s do the math. What percentage of women artists are featured on this key Gallery 98 page?

It’s not surprising that we also come up short since our inventory of exhibition cards and other art ephemera is rooted in the same gallery system that the Guerrilla Girls were critiquing. Yet changing attitudes and the inclusion of alternative spaces and smaller galleries (the Guerrilla Girls mostly counted larger galleries and museums) have altered the numbers a bit. Currently,  35% of the artists listed on our artist page are women.

Featured below are six women artists who, against the odds, have risen to the top of the art world.  All the images come from art ephemera and multiples available from Gallery 98.

 

Lee Krasner

Lee Krasner, portrait by Robert Mapplethorpe from the 50-page catalogue Lee Krasner: Paintings from the Late Fifties, Robert Miller Gallery, 1982

Size: 7.75 x 10 inches

Lee Krasner, Blue Level (1955), folded card for the exhibition Collages 1939 – 1984, Robert Miller Gallery, 1986

Size: 5.5 x 8 inches

See more Lee Krasner ephemera

 

Miriam Schapiro

Miriam Schapiro in her studio, front of invitation card for the exhibition Geometry and Flowers, Thomas Segal Gallery, 1983

Size: 4.75 x 7 inches

Miriam Schapiro, Mother Russia, shaped invitation card for the exhibition Collaboration Series: Mother Russia, Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, 1994

Size: 13 x 6 inches

See more Miriam Schapiro ephemera

 

Nancy Spero

Nancy Spero, folded card announcing Food for Thought residency and the exhibition Burning in Hell, Franklin Furnance, 1991-92

Size: 5.5 x 12.5 inches

Nancy Spero, folded poster for concurrent Spero exhibitions at A.I.R. Gallery and three other venues, 1983

Size: 17 x 22 inches

See more Nancy Spero ephemera

 

Jenny Holzer

Calling Women (Jenny Holzer), signed two-color lithograph by Mike Glier from an edition of 25, published by Art Institute of Chicago,1983

Size: 30 x 22 inches

Jenny Holzer, Raise Boys And Girls The Same Way, from a collection of 19 stickers published by ArtAngel Trust, 1988

Size of full sticker sheet: 9.5 x 6 inches

See more Jenny Holzer ephemera

 

Marlene Dumas

Marlene Dumas and Helena, photo by Paul Andriesse, postcard, Art Unlimited Amsterdam (NL), 1989

Size: 6 x 4.25 inches

Marlene Dumas, The Painter [Helena] (1994), cover of foldout brochure for the exhibition Marlene Dumas – The Image As Burden, Stedelijk Museum (NL), 2014.

Size: 6.75 x 9.5 Inches

See more Marlene Dumas ephemera

 

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman, portrait by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, card for the exhibition Selected Portraits 1985 – 1995, Ludwig Köln Museum (Germany), 1996

Size: 4.25 x 6 inches

Cindy Sherman (cover image), 4-part brochure from the group show Real Stories with Sherman, Robert Gober, Cady Noland, Richard Prince, and others, Marianne Boesky Gallery, 1998

Size: 4 x 8.5 inches

See more Cindy Sherman ephemera

 

Nan Goldin

Nan Goldin, card, White Cube Gallery (London), 1999

Size: 6 x 6 inches

Nan Goldin, Self-Portrait in Blue Bathroom (1980), folded card for the exhibition I’ll Be Your Mirror, Whitney Museum, 1996

Size: 5 x 7 inches

See more Nan Goldin ephemera

 

See more work by women artists here

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