Mary-Ann Sanfaçon:
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I agree with you totally about women artists being discounted. Unfortunately, the discrimination and the discounting of works by women artists is continuing,... and it is not just in the visual arts. It is a bias which is softly, (but not tenderly) present in many of the other arts.
I am a musician, composer, and performer. I have been a music teacher, writer, actor, presenter, producer and more. It is still obvious that many more men in these arts get awards more than women. Men in the arts are still being 'written up' in magazines, newspapers, TV notices and more. We women in the arts must continue to ‘fight the system’.
Why? It is because all the protests, marches and victories we 'won' in the 60s to the 80s has largely diminished. This is because alt-right Conservatism is and has crept into politics and our 'culture' like a hidden rat in the church of our complacent society. We must organize and fight this 'masque' which displays itself as a 'sentimental journey' back to the 50s...
So many great visual female artists were 'the real thing'. Why? It is because their works of art asked real questions to and of the viewer!! These courageous women were not afraid to show their underlying meanings by which they lived and worked. When you take the time to analyze each object in their work, you begin to understand the messages they are conveying. Yes, LucrezIa lived in the early Renaissance, but we cannot say that the reason for why she did not undertake a battle with her mother about this arranged marriage, we must reach inside ourselves and realize that if these women artists centuries earlier could do it, we can do it and fight this alt-right backwards thinking and acting in our society now!
While I think I am a pacifist because I hate long drawn-out conflicts in any way, there are times when you must 'stick up for yourself'.
I had to do that in the 60s when I was a student at McGill and I have had to do it many times in my life... It is time for us in any or all of the arts to organize, or else we will remain in the 'fog' and no one will care about what we have created and/or why we have tried to make our civilization a much better one.
Sincerely,
Diane S. Schmolka
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