Born from the Margins: Women Gallerists Creating New Markets, 1800-1990
In 1966, Linda Givon founded the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the goal of championing contemporary art as an agent of social change and political activism. Her work as a gallerist serves as the inspiration for this session, which purpose is to contribute to expanding our understanding of the development of the current global contemporary art canon. As co-founders of WADDA [Women Art Dealers Digital Archives], the chairs have chosen to organize this session around women art dealers, who have either established their practice outside the US-Europe centric axis or have supported the careers of artists traditionally marginalized in major art market centers. Because of the project’s long chronological span, we are also interested in seeing how through the 1800, the shifting status of the art dealer, which was not yet professionalized, allowed women to act as agents for artists and advisors for private collectors often using their own agency because they were themselves artists.
We welcome two types of proposals. One from contributors who have studied women art dealers in Asia, Africa, and South America, as well as in the Middle East and Eastern and Central Europe and another one that highlight women gallerists who have focused their practice on women artists and traditional marginalized groups, such as African American, First Nations and Indigenous artists as well as Outsider Artists. This session hopes to illuminate how through their selection of artists or from the geographical space they operated from, these women gallerists brought to the center art that is now considered key to today’s contemporary art market.
Please send a short abstract for a 25-minute paper (250 words max) to Dr. Véronique Chagnon- Burke at veroniqueburke79@gmail.com and to Dr. Caterina Toschi at toschi@unistrasi.it by November 1st. The conference will take place in London from April 6th to April 8th, 2022.