Get the Facts
Did you know?
51% of visual artists today are women.
Only 5% of the art currently on display in U.S. museums is made by women.
“The men liked to put me down as the best woman painter. I think I’m one of the best painters.”—Georgia O’Keeffe
In the Renaissance and Baroque eras, women could not purchase their own paints. They had to rely on a male relative or instructor.
- Only 27 women are represented in current edition of H.W. Janson's survey, History of Art—up from zero in the 1980s.
Though women earn more than 1/2 of the MFAs granted in the US, only 1/3 of gallery representation is women.
“This is so good you wouldn’t know it was done by a woman.”—artist-instructor Hans Hofmann's “compliment” to Lee Krasner.
Here's What the Guerrilla Girls Have to Say
The Guerrilla Girls is a group of women artists and arts professionals who fight discrimination.
The group reframes the question: “Why haven’t there been more great women artists throughout Western history?” Instead, they ask: “Why haven’t more women been considered great artists throughout Western history?”
The Guerrilla Girls created the poster, Horror on the National Mall! (shown above), in honor of NMWA's 20th Anniversary. The poster even highlights our living founder: "Ever wonder why Billie Holladay started the National Museum of Women in the Arts? Now you know!"
Check out some of the Guerrilla Girls's facts:
- Less than 3% of the artists in the Modern Art section of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art are women, but 83% of the nudes are female.
In 1723, Dutch painter Margareta Haverman was expelled from the Académie Royale when the painting she submitted was judged too good to have been done by a woman.
Things have not changed much since 12th century England: women who embroidered earned 83% less per day than their male peers.