Read Up!

Throughout the history of art in the US and the world women artists have been largely barred from participation in the traditional ways artist are represented in museums and galleries. 

In the 1980s the Guerilla Girls protests the New York asking, "Do women have to be naked to get into the MET Museum?" Referring to the many nude paintings of women in the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York City, and the dearth of women painters exhibited there.

The first time a survey of artwork by gender was conducted, it revealed that only about 11% of the artwork shown in US museums and galleries was by women artists.

Things haven't improved much in the past 40 years. Representation of women artists had increased to 13% in 2017. Things are getting better now, as the heat of the Me Too movement increased the visibility of women in general, and more women have become prominent in museum directorship and the gallery business.

We acknowledge several Colorado women who have moved the inclusion of women artists forward in recent years.

Gwen Chanzit, cultivated and curated the groundbreaking exhibition "Women of Abstract Expressionism" at the Denver Art Museum in 2016, that highlighted the women who were working in New York and California during the 1940s-1960s alongside the famous men you've probably heard of. The book/catalog is still available and is an essential have for artists and non-artists alike.