Women Artists And Their Climb To The Upper Rung

Contemporary Indian art hasn't fallen into the gender trap and is unbiased towards women.

- Carol Goyal & Tanya Goyal

IS THERE A glass ceiling in art? A glass ceiling that women artists have not been able to break through in centuries? According to Oxford-based Tejvan Pettinger, the Top 10 Artists of all times are Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Raphael, August Renoir, Jan Vermeer and Paul Cezanne. One may not agree with all the names on Pettinger’s list, or have a different rank-order in mind, but one stark fact that stands out for sure: they are all male. It takes quite a bit of effort to piece together a similar list of the world’s Top 10 women painters … Mary Beale, Louise Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun, Mary Cassatt, Elizabeth Thompson, Frida Kahlo, Artemisia Gentileschi, Georgia O’Keeffe, Sonia Delaunay, Helen Frankenthaler, Sigrid Hjerten … It is quite possible that most art lovers, even critics, may not have heard of all these women artists. They achieved eminence in their domain but never really hit the upper circuit of global fame and acclaim. So, one is bound to ask, what has this been an issue of? Talent? Exposure? Education? Opportunity? Visibility? Patronage? Quality?