In order to showcase the representation of black women artists throughout the museums in London, we have done a comprehensive data analysis on two of London's most visited art museums -- which are also some of the most renowned museums in the world:
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the national gallery • the tate modern
art museum representation
The Facts: Out of the entire collection at London's famous National Gallery, only 10 women are featured. Out of these 10 female artists, not a single one is a woman of colour. Since there are a total of 812 artists featured at the museum, this means that only 1.23% of the artists are women and 0% are black women. In fact, there are more male artists with the name 'Jan' than there are female artists in this museum.
Analysis: The National Gallery primarily houses art produced in Europe before the 20th century. Historically speaking, black women were never given the rights to produce professional artwork, unless it is in the form of stolen artefacts from the UK's colonised nations. Therefore, the embarrassingly low representation of black women artists at the National Gallery highlights Europe's colonial and white-centric history through the 20th century.
The Facts: Out of 4,204 artists in London's Tate Modern, 710 are women. Of those 710 female artists, only 26 are black. Therefore, 16.889% of the total modern artists are women. As for black women, they comprise 3.662% of the female artists and 0.618% of the total artists featured in the museum.
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Analysis: The Tate Modern is home to London's most prominent modern art. It houses many exhibits and pieces expressing political and social messages. Therefore, its contemporary and, even, progressive nature should supports the presence and representation of female and minority artists. However, due to the exclusivity of London's art world, men, and white men in particular, are still overwhelmingly dominating this museum.
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It is clear that the Tate Modern has significantly more women as compared to the National Gallery. However, the lack of female and, more specifically, black female representation among the artists is staggering. There are clear underlying themes of exclusion. Although the museums radically differ in style, type of art, and time periods in which the art was produced, they both are not representative or inclusive of black female artists. The Tate Modern shows the slim progress the art world, as well as society as whole, has made towards including women and women of colour. However, more active efforts need to be taken in order to make these museums reflective of our world's valuable diversity and many perspectives.
our rationale
(why these museums?)
After much research into the famous museums of London, we decided to choose two of the city's largest art museums: The National Gallery and The Tate Modern. These museums, while both world-renowned institutions, differ greatly in many regards. There is a great difference of mediums, as the Tate Modern extends beyond classical paintings to include photography, film, sculptures, and other visual instalments. Additionally, the time period of when these pieces were both created and curated differ greatly. In fact, the National Gallery has pieces as old as the 14th century, while the Tate Modern has installations as new as this year. Therefore, both of these institutions represent different ends of the art spectrum, yet both ultimately showcase the exclusion present in the art community.
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