Why Are There So Few Great Women Artists?

While the Museum of Modern Art and other museums diligently compile dubious statistics that “prove” the enormous economic value of their activities to their cities, the Village Voice‘s indispensable art critic, Jerry Saltz, has been busy gathering more telling statistics:
The percentage of women exhibiting in New York galleries and museums is grievously low. According to the fall exhibition schedules for 125 well-known New York galleries–42 percent of which are owned or co-owned by women–of 297 one-person shows by living artists taking place between now and December 31, just 23 percent are solos by women….
And it’s certainly not as sorry as the situation at some of our museums. On the fourth and fifth floors of the Museum of Modern Art, in the galleries devoted to the permanent collection of art from 1879 to 1969, there are currently 399 objects. Only 19, or 5 percent, of those objects are by women….
Meanwhile, since 2000 only 14 percent of the Guggenheim’s solo shows of living artists have been devoted to women. After cringing at that, consider “Full House,” the Whitney’s recent installation of its permanent collection. The show was challenging but familiar in one troubling area: Only 19 percent of its participants were women.
Jerry, want to do a study of women bloggers? (On that subject, here is CultureGrrl‘s very first post!)