Crash Course in Art and Reality: Goldrausch Women
Artists in Berlin
Half of the art
students enrolled at German academies are women. Beyond that, however, the
parity between men and women soon ends. Regardless of where you look,
whether it's in terms of income, participation in larger exhibitions, the
awarding of prizes, or professorship nominations at the academies - women
artists are at a scandalous disadvantage to their male colleagues. But
this isn't the only reason the Goldrausch women artists' project in Berlin
was called to life, as Ulrich Clewing found out..
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Carla Ahlander: Untitled, 2000
(Ehrwald)
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The initiative is unique in Germany. Ever since 1989,
fifteen young Berlin-based women artists have been taking part each year
in a very special program to learn about everything else it takes to
practice their profession - besides creativity. The
Goldrausch Women Artists' Project art IT sees itself as a "course in
professionalization" and sets out to combine "practical exercises in
promoting one's own artistic work" with seminars on "self-management and
other aspects of the professional field."
One might indeed
think that this is self-evident for someone seriously planning a career as
an artist. Yet these down-to-earth skills aren't taught in the academies;
on the contrary, fine arts students are cradled in a misleading sense of
security that it's enough to develop their technique, find their own
style, and otherwise be themselves as much as possible. This is fine until
their education comes to a close; then, the graduates suddenly find
themselves left to their own devices, and many of them do not have even
the slightest idea what this really entails. The German academies might
produce a line of geniuses, but what it takes to survive on the art market
isn't even touched upon in school.
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Annette Begerow: Untitled, 1989
This realization, sobering as it was in terms of educational policy, was one
of the reasons fifteen years ago for founding the Goldrausch project in
Berlin. Typically, it wasn't the former art academy, which has since been
upgraded to a university,
or the Berlin Arts Council that
supported the initiative, but the Berlin Council on Economy, Labor, and
Women together with the Special European Fund - yet another reason
demonstrating the necessity of a project like Goldrausch. The numbers
speak for themselves: there are a mere 18 women among 100 names in a
ranking such as Art
Compass, which is published by the financial magazine Capital each
fall and lists the artists highest in demand worldwide according to a
complicated point system - and that's a good average compared to former
years.
The imbalance becomes even clearer when Capital's "price
evaluation" section is examined, with grades ranging from "very
affordable" to "very expensive." 11 of 18 women artists are classified
here as "very affordable," two as "affordable," and only five women
artists attain to the categorizations "priced accordingly," "expensive,"
or "very expensive."
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Anne Berning: Postcard (Trockel), 1997
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