Male artists dominate galleries. Is it because 'women don't paint very well,' or just discrimination?
In the art world, there is a gaping gender imbalance when it comes to male and female artists.
In the National Gallery of Australia, only 25% of the Australian art collection is work by women.
This is far better than the international standard where roughly 90% of all artworks exhibited in major collections are by men. The most expensivepainting by a female artist—Georgia O'Keeffe's Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1—does not even rank among the 100 most expensive paintings ever sold.
Why is women's art valued so much less than art by men?
Some economists have suggested the greater burden of child rearing and other domestic duties means women have had fewer opportunities to succeed in the art world.
Others have blamed the "quality" of women's art. In 2013, German painter Georg Baselitz said "Women don't paint very well. It's a fact. The market doesn't lie."
One of these vases was painted by a woman; the other by a man. Can you guess which is which? Credit: B van der Ast/M van Oosterwijck