Dear Diary, ...

Dear Diary,   As a child, I hardly had any female-identifying role models. Not for life and certainly not for art. I knew Vincent van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso. "Picasso, that genius," I heard over and over again. Mostly male artists hung and still hang in museums. In school, we only talked about male artists. Male Artists in expressionism, male artists in impressionism, blah blah blah, genius here, genius there. It sucked - and it still sucks!   Six of the invited female artists*[1] live in Berlin, the others I discovered online and invited because I admire their work. Many of the works shown here were created specifically for this exhibition, which thematically explores the everyday, whether through material or content. With this exhibition I want to create a new network and connect, to show and promote exchange between women artists*.   That's why I'm writing it down here, dear diary. And to always remind myself:   Women*, unite!   Yours, Julie     PS:   "Women don't paint as well. That's a fact."[2]   Georg Baselitz. That old genius.   For centuries, men simply owned the genius. They were able to paint the great paintings back then - and still can today - because women, who were not allowed to go to university (in Germany, not until 1919), were kept busy in their role of domestic care-taker. Behind every man of genius was a woman who cooked, cleaned and took care of any children. Even today, only 25% of male artists experience disadvantage because of their family situation, compared to 70% of female artists.[3]   "The market doesn't lie," another Baselitz utterance of genius.[4]   If women earn less in the arts, it is because they don’t paint as well. Ok, thanks. In Germany, the gender pay gap amongst the general populace is one of the highest in Europe[5], (perhaps because women are worse at everything than men, haha) - in the visual arts, this gap is 7% higher in Germany than the average gap in the rest of Europe.[6]   Only one woman was among the 30 most wanted artists at art auctions in Germany in 2020.[7]  According to a study by IFSE, 75 percent of men and only 25 percent of women were represented by galleries in 2013.[8] Even if there is improvement, in German museums, the gap between the number of art works shown made by men compared to those made by women is above average than in the rest of Europe.[9]       [1] One of the exhibitors is non-binary [2]  Georg Baselitz, in: „Meine Bilder sind Schlachten“, Gespräch in Der Spiegel 4/2013, 20. Januar 2013, https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/meine-bilder-sind-schlachten-a-5f1ebdde-0002-0001-0000-000090638333 (aufgerufen am 13. August 2022).. [3]Gender Pay Gap / Gender Show Gap in the Visual Arts. 3rd Fördersummit des bbk berlin in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Bildungswerk des bbk Berlin, 2018, p. 2. https://www.bbk-berlin.de/sites/default/files/2020-01/bbk%20berlin%20Fact-Sheet%20Gender%20Gap.pdf (accessed August 13, 2022). [4]Georg Baselitz, in: „Meine Bilder sind Schlachten“, Gespräch in Der Spiegel 4/2013, 20. Januar 2013, https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/meine-bilder-sind-schlachten-a-5f1ebdde-0002-0001-0000-000090638333 (aufgerufen am 13. August 2022).. [5]Federal Statistical Office: "Gender Pay Gap in the European Union," https://www.destatis.de/Europa/DE/Thema/Bevoelkerung-Arbeit-Soziales/Arbeitsmarkt/Qualitaet-der-Arbeit/_dimension-1/07_gender-pay-gap.html (accessed February 2, 2022). [6] Gender Pay Gap / Gender Show Gap in the Visual Arts. 3rd Fördersummit des bbk berlin in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Bildungswerk des bbk Berlin, 2018, p. 2. https://www.bbk-berlin.de/sites/default/files/2020-01/bbk%20berlin%20Fact-Sheet%20Gender%20Gap.pdf (accessed August 13, 2022). [7]Fair Share für Künstlerinnen: „Unter den 30 auf Kunstauktionen in Deutschland im Jahr 2020 begehrtesten Kunstschaffenden ist genau 1 Künstlerin“, March 21, 2021, https://www.instagram.com/p/CL4BD7ZFT3D/ (accessed August 13, 2022). [8]Institute for Strategy Development (IFSE) (ed.), "Gallery Study 2013. A Position Statement," October 2013, p. 24. https://ifse.de/Pdf/IFSE_Galerienstudie_2013.pdf (accessed August 15, 2022). [9] Gender Pay Gap / Gender Show Gap in the Visual Arts. 3rd Fördersummit des bbk berlin in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Bildungswerk des bbk Berlin, 2018, p. 4.#  https://www.bbk-berlin.de/sites/default/files/2020-01/bbk%20berlin%20Fact-Sheet%20Gender%20Gap.pdf (accessed August 13, 2022).