Women’s work placed in priority
« In this exhibition there are new inputs from the Museum of the Reykjavík Art Museum, only works by living women, who have acquired the museum for the past five years. Then the club was appointed by Eirún Sigurðardóttir, Jóní Jónsdóttir and Sigrún Hrólfsdóttir.
Women’s work placed in priority
Ólöf says that in recent years, the Reykjavík Art Museum has placed special emphasis on collecting works by women, because in the museum Halli Halli significantly on women’s share.
« The museum received a grant to establish a research position to study the share of women in Icelandic art history. This was a three -year project that delivered three important exhibitions in Kjarvalsstaðir and important editions. Turbulence which is still ongoing. These three exhibitions take on different aspects of women in Icelandic art history in the latter part of the twentieth century. In this context, we introduced ourselves to what was being done internationally, among other things, went to the conference Fast Forwardwhich is held regularly, where the share of women in Western art history in the latter part of the twentieth century is being analyzed. There we had to explain the figures of the Reykjavík Art Museum, but our museum is hugely masculine, the foundation of the museum in the beginning was mostly the work of men, a large collection of works by Kjarval, Errós and Ásmund Sveinsson. Apart from these special collections, the general museum is, mostly from the latter part of the twentieth century to the contemporary, but when we look at that collection we see that women’s works are less than 24 percent, which is striking. We are not talking about the time when women were very few in the group of artists. However, this was some reality check for us, so we took the step to prioritize women’s work when it comes to artwork, having positive discrimination. We realized that we never could justify this gender deficit completely, but it was symbolic and expressed a willingness to correct women’s share and recognize the historical fact that it is leaning on women’s share in the museum. The resources we have to play for inputs limits very much what we do and at all times the museum has had to look past the magnificent works that the museum might have wanted to acquire. «
« Will women be naked? »
Ólöf says that the title of the show, Art is our only hope!,, is selected from the works of Katrín Inga Jónsdóttir Hjördísardóttir, who are on the exhibition.
« This is the headline of three photographs that capture Katrina’s performance in which she nodding to artist Carolee Schneemann, but she did her act in the 1960s. Art women, the struggle of women still has to be borne in the field of visual arts.
Ólöf says that some of the works in the exhibition speak directly into her goal, for example, the works of Audur Lóa Guðnadóttir, where the subject is the artist group Guerilla Girls, which is known for directing the spotlight to the underestimation of the art world. On the work of Audur Lóa, a phrase from one of the most famous works of Guerilla Girls stands: « Will women be naked to get into the Met Museum? »
Ólöf will have a conversation with the women’s club women at. 20 in Hafnarhús nk. Thursday evening, May 8, on the last show day, when the museum will be open until 11:00. 22, like every Thursday in Hafnarhús.
In addition to the performance club, there are works by numerous artists in the exhibition, these are Anna Hallin, Anna Hrund Másdóttir, Arna Óttarsdóttir, Auður Lóa Guðnadóttir, Edda Jónsdóttir, Erla Þórarinsdóttir, Geirþrúður Finnbogadóttir Hjörvar Ingunn Fjóla Ingþórsdóttir, Katrín Elvarsdóttir, Katrín Inga Jónsdóttir Hjördísardóttir, Kristín Morthens, Margrét H. Blöndal, Olga Bergmann, Sirra Sigrún Sigurðardóttir, Una Björg Magnúsdóttir, Una Margrét Árnadóttir.
