On the 15th April of this year Sotheby’s New York sold Leonora Carrington’s 1945 “Les Distractions de Dagobert” for $28.5m setting a new record for a female British artist. However, if we remove the words “female” and “British”, she doesn’t make Wikipedia’s list of the top 89 most expensive paintings. In fact, no women artists do
Historical discrimination against women artists is an uncomfortable truth. We acknowledge past injustices, think things are better now, yet know there is more to do. However, the above news struck me as positive, and prompted me to investigate further
I totally support the work by Guerrilla Girls and others, to achieve equality for female artists, and feel that their action and that of other activists has resulted in some progress is being made.
To be clear, my perception is unduly biased by what I see at the Tate Modern. This is my local museum, where I’m a member and have free access to all exhibitions. Over the 8,818 hours of this project to date, it seems to me that the Tate has given Leonora Carrington and Dorothea Tanning greater exhibition time than it has Max Ernst, and overall I feel women artists are well represented
Again influenced primarily by the Tate, Diego Rivera, whilst a great artist with a significant place in art history, is most known to me for being Frida Kahlo’s husband
This post aims to take a more objective view
Wikipedia lists Georgia O’Keeffe as the best selling woman, with her 1932 painting “Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1”, left
Selling for $57m (adjusted for inflation), this pales next to:
- Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” at $560m
- Willem de Kooning’s Interchange at $386m
- Jackson Pollock’s Number 17a at $257m
or even Francis Bacon’s Triptych (way down the list) bought by Roman Abramovich for $86.3m in 1976 ($122m in today’s money)
Example relationships between successful artists include:
- Leonora Carrington – Max Ernst
- Dorothea Tanning – also Max Ernst
- Georgia O’Keeffe – Alfred Stieglitz
- Kay Sage – Yves Tanguy
- Frida Kahlo – Diego Rivera
- Lee Krasner – Jackson Pollock
- Dora Maar – Picasso
In all cases the men were more successful during their lifetimes, but recognition of the womens’ work seems to be growing
In May 2006 Picasso’s portrait of Dora Maar sold for $95m (the second highest amount paid for a painting at that time). MutualArt claims that the record price achieved for a Dora Maar is US$707,864 for “Portrait de Pablo Picasso” sold at Sotheby’s Paris in 2009. Picasso thought Dora Maar was a talented painter, so much so that he encouraged her to give up the photography, for which she was already renown, to pursue “the higher form of art”
Leading contemporary artists from the United Kingdom (UK) between July 2022 and June 2023, by auction revenue
- 4 men – 6 women
- Total revenue:
- Men, $103.25m
- Women, $84.58m
- Number of works:
- Men, 2,786
- Women, 367
- Average price:
- Men $37,000
- Women, $230,000
Outside of the UK, in 2021 Frida Kahlo’s, 1949, “Diego y yo” sold for $34.9m, breaking the record for the most expensive Latin American artwork, previously held by Diego Rivera: $9.8m for his 1931, “The Rivals”
 |  | |
| “Diego y yo” $34.9m | “The Rivals” $9.8m |
Sadly Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo are exceptions. Overall the art market still favours men. Women accounted for only 28% of solo exhibitions in major London galleries in 2020 (annual report by the Freelands Foundation), but since 2009, 67% of the solo winners of the Turner Prize have been women. So to return to my uncomfortable truth statement at the start of this article: there is still significant gender inequality in the art market, many organisations are committed to redressing this imbalance, and progress is being made, albeit slowly
In summary, if you have a spare $million or so, I would suggest that, on the basis of art quality alone, Maar’s Picasso seems good value at 1/135th the cost of Picasso’s Maar. [This may be terrible investment advice as many factors come into play when valuing art]
Notes:
- “Revised: Top 10 Painters” – my recent blog post, where 5 of my top 10 favourite artists are women, although most of the very top slots are occupied by men