DATABANK

Minding the Gender Gap

ART+AUCTION DECEMBER 2013 | BLOUINARTINFO.COM

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ONLY 6.5 PERCENT OF THE PAINTINGS sold at auction in 2012 were the work

of female artists. This staggeringly low figure is nonetheless more than twice

that of two decades ago, when just 3 percent of works that came on the block were

by women. The top 100 prices achieved at auction were works by male artists,

with depictions of women often fetching the highest prices. In some eyes, a woman’s

signature renders a painting a bargain. The price paid for works by those women who

have found favor in the marketplace—such as Nathalie Goncharova, Yayoi Kusama,

Joan Mitchell, or Rosemarie Trockel—is rarely more than half of that shelled out

for works by male artists. More often than not, women command less than 10 percent

of what men earn for their artistic output, the greatest disparity being in the realm

of Old Masters. (Here, however, experts rightly point to the paucity of work by

women artists, which limits sale frequency and holds down prices.) Despite severe

underrepresentation of women at the top end of the auction rankings, the latest sale

records suggest that the market for female artists is improving,

albeit marginally—which in turn affects perception and attitudes.

In February, Berthe Morisot’s Après le déjeuner, 1881, sold for

£6,985,250 ($10,986,300) at Christie’s London, making it the most

expensive painting to date by a female artist. BY ROMAN KRAEUSSL

Joan Mitchell ‘s Untitled, ca. 1960, an oil on canvas, sold for $9.3 million (est. $4–6 million) at Sotheby’s in November 2011.

PRICES REALIZED BY MEN AND WOMEN PAINTERS 1983–2012

This chart provides a comparison of the auction price trend for men and women over the past three decades. Women artists tend to earn 50 percent or less of what their male counterparts do for their work. During market bubbles, such as those seen in the late 1980s and mid 2000s, male artists have accounted for an even greater share of dollar volume at auction.

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FOR OTHER INDICES AND MORE THAN 4.8 MILLION FINE ART AND DESIGN AUCTION RESULTS, GO TO ARTSALESINDEX.ARTINFO.COM

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This past February Berthe Morisot’s Après le déjeuner, 1881, sold for $11!mil- lion at Christie’s London, a record for any female painter. Helen Frankenthaler’s Royal Fireworks , 1975, below, brought $818,500 at Christie’s New!York in 2011.

THE TOP 20 FEMALE ARTISTS BY VOLUME IN 2012

Abstract Expressionist painter Joan Mitchell not only tops the 2012 leaderboard but also holds the all-time record for a woman, with $228,199,077 in total for sales of 341 paintings. The 84-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, has the highest turnover of any living woman.

ARTIST, COUNTRY VOLUME 2012 HIGHEST PRICE ARTWORK, DATE AUCTION HOUSE, DATE

Joan Mitchell, U.S. $33,915,872 14 $9,322,500 Untitled, ca. 1960 Sotheby’s New York, 2011

Tamara de Lempicka, Poland $14,355,335 15 $8,482,500 Le rêve (Rafaëla sur fond vert), 1927 Sotheby’s New York, 2011

Yayoi Kusama, Japan $10,052,162 40 $3,330,500 No. G.A. White, 1960 Christie’s New York, 2010

Irma Stern, South Africa $9,890,569 15 $4,974,780 Arab Priest, 1945 Bonhams London, 2011

Agnes Martin, U.S. $6,703,970 4 $4,744,000 The Desert, 1965 Christie’s New York, 2007

Beatriz Milhazes, Brazil $6,621,163 5 $2,098,500 Meu Limão, 2000 Sotheby’s New York, 2012

Georgia O'Keeffe, U.S. $6,213,000 2 $5,600,000 Calla Lilies with Red Anemone, 1928 Christie’s New York, 2001

Natalia Goncharova, Russia $4,961,676 6 $10,881,600 Les fleurs, ca. 1912 Christie’s London, 2008

Helen Frankenthaler, U.S. $4,897,652 15 $818,500 Royal Fireworks, 1975 Christie’s New York, 2011

Emily Carr, Canada $4,166,545 13 $1,912,390 Wind in the Tree Tops, 1936-39 Heffel, Vancouver, 2009

Mary Cassatt, U.S. $4,085,000 2 $6,200,000 Children Playing with a Dog, 1907 Christie’s New York, 2007

Gabriele Münter, Germany $4,084,380 22 $1,052,480 Gelbes Haus mit Apfelbaum, 1910 Christie’s London, 2008

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, France $3,747,136 17 $1,338,900 Hiver, 1960 Sotheby’s Paris, 2010

Cecily Brown, U.K. $2,365,924 7 $1,608,000 The Pyjama Game, 1997–98 Christie’s New York, 2007

Adriana Varejão, Brazil $2,257,169 5 $1,777,390 Wall with Incisions a la Fontana II, 2001 Christie’s London, 2011

Elizabeth Peyton, U.S. $1,486,000 4 $769,615 Arsenal (Prince Harry), 1997 Sotheby’s London, 2010

Bridget Riley, U.K. $1,336,063 3 $5,104,800 Chant 2, 1967 Sotheby’s London, 2008

Berthe Morisot, France $1,002,057 4 $5,168,000 Cache-Cache, 1873 Sotheby’s New York, 2005

Susan Rothenberg, U.S. $938,000 3 $1,496,000 Diagonal, 1975 Christie’s New York, 2007

Rosemarie Trockel, Germany $926,374 6 $405,268 Untitled, 1991 Christie’s London, 2012

NUMBER OF WORKS

FEMALE MALE

The disparity between male and female artists is greatest in the area of Old Masters, unsurprisingly. Women have gained more ground in the realms of Postwar and contemporary and American paintings.

MARKET PERCENTAGE BY STYLE

Old Masters

Postwar and Contemporary

Impressionists

American

19th-Century European

0.90%

3.41%

8.52%

2.28%

5.91%

99.1%

96.59%

97.72%

94.09%

91.48%