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Society USA30. November 2019

Museum Sells Famous Artwork by Men – to Purchase More Pieces by Women

The Baltimore Museum of Art in Maryland, United States is upgrading its male-dominated collection: in 2020, every permanent art piece acquired will be created by a female artist, to rectify the museum’s currently imbalanced ratio.

The institution is currently home to only 3,800 works made my women, out of the total of 95,000 items. Earlier this year, the museum announced plans to sell seven pieces by famous white male artists such as Andy Warhol, in order to fund the purchase of more works of art by women and artists of color.

“This [is] how you raise awareness and shift the identity of an institution,” says museum director Christopher Bedford to the Baltimore Sun. “You don’t just purchase one painting by a female artist of color and hang it on the wall next to a painting by Mark Rothko. To rectify centuries of imbalance, you have to do something radical.”

“What the Baltimore museum is doing is so cool,” adds Bianca Kovic of the National Association of Women Artists. “We think all museums should do it. It’s particularly important that the BMA is creating a platform for [women] artists to showcase their work, because that will inspire other women to make art.”

Source:
Smithsonian

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