“About: The Blank Pages” es un proyecto de colaboración de las artistas Ditte Ejlerskov y EvaMarie Lindahl que se ha materializado en una instalación expuesta en el Kvinnohistoriskt Museum de Umeå (Suecia).
La instalación está compuesta por 200 libros diferentes. Aunque aparentemente poseen las mismas señas de identidad, más de la mitad son inéditos. Los 97 primeros han sido publicados por la editorial Taschen dentro de su conocida serie Basic Art, mientras que el resto han sido impresos por las propias artistas imitando la cubierta de las publicaciones de la editorial alemana y con las páginas en blanco.
El proyecto investiga los procesos de selección propios de las enciclopedias de arte y el formato de archivo de los diferentes tipos de conocimiento. En este caso han tomado como punto de partida la referida serie de Taschen, ya que de las 97 monografías publicadas hasta hoy solo 5 son de mujeres artistas: Jeanne-Claude (junto a Christo), Frida Kahlo, Tamara de Lempicka, Georgia O’Keeffe y Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. Por esta razón, EvaMarie Lindahl y Ditte Ejlerskov deciden recuperar los nombres desaparecidos planteando la siguiente pregunta: ¿Puedes nombrar una mujer artista publicada por Taschen Basic Art?, ofreciendo el siguiente listado de autoras no publicadas y con méritos más que suficientes para formar parte de la serie.
Artistas inéditas: Magdalena Abakanowicz, Marina Abramovic, Carla Accardi, Anni Albers, Sofonisba Anguissola, Diane Arbus, Marie Bashkirtseff, Mary Beale, Cecilia Beaux, Vanessa Bell, Rosa Bonheur, Louise Bourgeois, Romaine Brooks, Rosalba Carriera, Mary Cassatt, Élisabeth Sophie Chéron, Judy Chicago, Camille Claudel, Evelyn de Morgan, Niki de Saint Phalle, Sonia Delaunay, Alexandra Exter, Lavinia Fontana, Helen Frankenthaler, Artemisia Gentileschi, Marguerite Gérard, Madge Gill, Natalia Goncharova, Eva Gonzalès, Helen Frances Gregor, Ellen Day Hale, Barbara Hepworth, Eva Hesse, Jenny Holzer, Hannah Höch, Gwen John, Angelica Kauffman, Mary Kelly, Hilma Af Klint, Anna Elizabeth Klumpke, Laura Knight, Katarzyna Kobro, Lee Krasner, Barbara Kruger, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, Giulia Lama, Lotte Laserstein, Marie Laurencin, Nadia Khodasevich-Leger, Judith Leyster, Barbara Longhi, Dora Maar, Agnes Martin, Ana Mendieta, Maria Sibylla Merian, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Louise Moillon, Berthe Morisot, Kathleen Munn, Gabriele Münter, Alice Neel, Plautilla Nelli, Louise Nevelson, Yoko Ono, Meret Oppenheim, Marta Pan, Lilla Cabot Perry, Lyubov Popova, Paula Rego, Germaine Richier, Bridget Riley, Marietta Robusti, Martha Rosler, Olga Rozanova, Rachel Ruysch, Hannah Ryggen, Carolee Schneemann, Zinaida Serebriakova, Cindy Sherman, Elisabetta Sirani, Sylvia Sleigh, Lilly Martin Spencer, Varvara Stepanova, Gunta Stölzl, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Dorothea Tanning, Alma Thomas, Nadezhda Udaltsova, Suzanne Valadon, Anne Vallayer-Coster, Louise É. Vigée Le Brun, Charmion Von Wiegand, Hannah Wilke.
E-mail enviado por Ditte Ejlerskov y EvaMarie Lindahl a la editorial Taschen:
FROM: Ditte Ejlerskov, EvaMarie Lindahl
TO: Petra Lamers-Schütze, Taschen
SUBJECT: About: The Blank Pages
Dear Dr. Petra Lamers-Schütze, or whom it may concern involved with Taschen’s Basic Art Series,
In March 2010 we had a conversation over the phone about Taschen’s unequal selection of artists for the Basic Art Series. You asked if we were able to mention any female artists that we thought were missing. We mentioned a few that you did not acknowledge as potential candidates for Taschen’s version of art history. We hereby hand over our entire compilation of the nearly 100 missing female artists that we consider qualify for the Basic Art Series alongside the 92 men and 5 women, already published.
It took us almost four years to complete your request, since we wanted to make sure that the facts provided are adequate and useful to you. Our purpose is to highlight the relevance of equality at all levels of art history. We are willing to argue that “misspellings”, wherever they appear, are important to pay attention to and correct.
You claim that you lack women in art history to pick from. However, you have to admit that Cindy Sherman, Agnes Martin, Louise Bourgeois and Artemisia Gentileschi are not exactly obscure artists. These are of course added to our list. To illustrate our work we decided to introduce all the missing book covers in an installation, where all artists are displayed with a glossy front cover, both the published and the unpublished, both the men and the women, some unpublished and therefore not yet written. We are now waiting for your expertise to fill the blank pages with content.
In close communication with artists, scholars, art historians, art critics and librarians, the Basic Art Series is now checked for errors and we hereby send the edited list back to you for correction.
With hope of a future collaboration.
Sincerely, Ditte Ejlerskov & EvaMarie Lindahl
Ditte Ejlerskov & EvaMarie Lindahl, About: The Blank Pages, Kvinnohistoriskt Museum, Umeå, Suecia. Del 13 de junio al 15 de noviembre de 2015.
