21/01/2010

Dear "Collectrices": Is it really a man's (art) world?

"Is it, really? The facts seem to be indisputable: Whether you check the top artists on Artfacts or the lists of influential art people and billionaire collectors on Forbes, only a few women are included. And only 37 % of the members at Independent Collectors are female, although this seems to be a surprisingly high figure for some.

But what if this is less a problem of actual presence and more an inbuilt glitch in the way such data is gathered?

Leaving the top selling artists and the matter of scale aside for a moment, could it be that there are actually more active women in the art world in general and among collectors in particular? Couldn't it be that "collectrices" are just less outgoing and tend to brag less about what they are doing? The male-dominated list of "most active" collectors at Independent Collectors supports this thesis.

From our experience, women who definitely are collectors by the usual standards are more often reluctant to call themselves collectors than their male counterparts. They seem to be more modest and less likely to define themselves through their collection. But there has to be a truth in the statement of gallery owners who say: It is a man's world. They must know who they're selling to, right?

Independent Collectors wants to find out what the situation is like beyond the glitter and glamour surface.

So if you are a collector, female or otherwise, you are invited to join Independent Collectors to contribute to the discussion and, who knows, maybe we'll learn that there are more women collectors than everybody thought."

Independent Collectors
Schlesische Str. 28
D-10997 Berlin
Germany
http://www.independent-collectors.com

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