Women Artists: The Other Side of the Picture

VHS video, color, 1999, 54 minutes. Available from Films for the Humanities and Sciences at 800-257-5126 or <www.films.com>.

Reviewed by Aaris Sherin,
Department of Art,
University of Northern Iowa,
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0362, U.S.A.

aaris.sherin@uni.edu

This informative video is a provocative, interesting look at the role of women in the contemporary art world, examining their larger place in society, as well as their inclusion in art history and museum collections. Three generations of well-known women artists are profiled as they discuss their ongoing struggle to be professionally successful, their views on feminism, and how they define themselves within a world that increasingly asks women to do all that men are asked to do--and more. What is perhaps most astonishing, in a time when we often consider ourselves fully liberated and equal, is how many female artists are still having to make the difficult choice between career and family. In this film, when an art student is asked to name five of her favorite male and female artists, in separate categories, it is extremely telling when she is able to accomplish the first task without difficulty (producing the names of five male artists with ease and enthusiasm), but when she tries to recall five females, she is surprised and discouraged to find that she is only able to name one. On average, the work of women artists represents a mere five to ten percent of the permanent collections of large national and international museums. While it is always difficult to say which works by women should replace those of acknowledged male masters, such statistics may challenge the viewer to question his/her own conception of equity and the ground rules for inclusion in a field that typically considers itself to be among the most open-minded and liberal.

(Reprinted by permission from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol. 19, No. 1, Autumn 2003.)