Freeland, Chapter 5

Gender, Genius and the Gorilla Girls
She talks about women being a minority group when it comes to art institutions. She makes a distinction to make sure the reader understands she is not saying that women are a minority in society but just a minority in the "histories of art." She questions whether gender and sex are relevant to art.
She then goes on to talk about Gorilla tactics. In 1985 a group of women artists protested sexism in New York. They would hide their identities under Gorilla masks and dressed in all black clothes, sometimes short skirts and high heels. They created ads with big bold black text and images of women, like the "Do women have to be naked to get into the Met," poster created to display the facts that only 5% of the artists are women but 85% of the actual nude pieces are female. Their ads were published in magazines and on street corners, even in bathrooms at museums and theatres.
She then goes on to talk about Nochlin's essay and how influential it was to the society of women artists. Since her essay in 1971 there have been more museums dedicated to women, such as the Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. She discusses genius and the origin of the word, something that Kant, Genius is 'what gives the rule to art.' The artist make the forms that are beautiful, it's their genius. She says Genius is usually used to excuse an artist strange behavior. Van Gogh, Pollack, Gauguin, these artists all pushed the boundaries and limits in the art world creating their viewers to "need" and explanation of their strange works.
Freeland discusses how even though some women have been noticed and acknowledged in the art world they are still not acknowledged to the same par as the men. Gender has constantly been a significant matter in art. Museums are filled with female nudes, not male, done by male artists and not female.

Is this just because of our society, the famous begining of Adam and Eve, Adam was created first, expected to provide, while Eve was created from Adam and expected to be the caregiver and lover to Adam. Is this the way that society will always be? The male getting more attention, going further in the workplace, and being ahead of the female?

Why do men get their pictures of female nudes in museums?

Why are there more male artists in museums than female?

And why are the art of these male artists depicting women in a vulnerable and quite "open" state?