Genius is in the Eye of the Beholder
Mentor 1
Amanda Seligman
Start Date
28-4-2023 12:00 AM
Description
Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? A poster by the anonymous activist group Guerilla Girls truly bares all. According to a study done by the feminist activist group that aims to create awareness about the gender gap in the art world, 76% of the nudes featured in the museum are female—yet only 4% of the artists in the Modern Art section are women. We might not give much thought to who the artist is behind the brush, but it's about time we do. When we think of artistic masterminds, the names Leonardo da Vinci, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso often come to mind, and rightly so. They undeniably revolutionized each of their respective styles of art, but we often fail to recognize the impact women have had on the artistic world too: Lavinia Fontana was the first woman to have a career as an artist during the Renaissance; Hilma af Klint created some of the first abstract artworks ever documented; and Edmonia Lewis produced sculptures of US Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. The failure to understand their importance is a failure to understand the true meaning behind the art. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the same thing is true for genius: society determines who exactly is one. Historically, it’s mostly men whose genius gets cultivated and recognized. But in order to understand the true picture of society and the true potential our diverse world holds, we must recognize women’s importance in every field—and this is especially true for art. We need to change our perception of genius in order to understand the important contributions women have made to the world of art.
Genius is in the Eye of the Beholder
Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? A poster by the anonymous activist group Guerilla Girls truly bares all. According to a study done by the feminist activist group that aims to create awareness about the gender gap in the art world, 76% of the nudes featured in the museum are female—yet only 4% of the artists in the Modern Art section are women. We might not give much thought to who the artist is behind the brush, but it's about time we do. When we think of artistic masterminds, the names Leonardo da Vinci, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso often come to mind, and rightly so. They undeniably revolutionized each of their respective styles of art, but we often fail to recognize the impact women have had on the artistic world too: Lavinia Fontana was the first woman to have a career as an artist during the Renaissance; Hilma af Klint created some of the first abstract artworks ever documented; and Edmonia Lewis produced sculptures of US Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. The failure to understand their importance is a failure to understand the true meaning behind the art. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the same thing is true for genius: society determines who exactly is one. Historically, it’s mostly men whose genius gets cultivated and recognized. But in order to understand the true picture of society and the true potential our diverse world holds, we must recognize women’s importance in every field—and this is especially true for art. We need to change our perception of genius in order to understand the important contributions women have made to the world of art.
