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PrintPowerhouse women
Female artists shine in male-dominated Western art scene
Nancy Glazier
(page 1 of 4)
Years ago western artist Nancy Glazier overheard a conversation during one of her receptions at Trailside Galleries in Jackson.
An advisor told a man not to buy one of her paintings because, as a woman, she might give up her budding art career to start a family.
“He could have bought a painting for way cheap back then,” says Glazier, who began her art career shortly after graduating from high school and is now in her 60s. “He would have been ill advised.”
Throughout the history of Western art, men’s works have traditionally enjoyed greater demand and fetched higher prices. A woman’s role was in the home — as a daughter, a wife and a mother. Venturing beyond those duties was considered unusual, even taboo.
Despite a momentous shift in women’s roles in Western society during the 20th century and an increasing number of female artists, works by men continue to outnumber those by women at some galleries and museums across the country.
Glazier’s experience remains a testament to a lingering inequality.
But for Glazier and two other well-known female artists represented by Jackson galleries, the inequity is little more than an afterthought.
Glazier, Hung Liu and Mary Roberson have made a name for themselves in the art world. The National Museum of Wildlife Art has included works by Glazier and Roberson in its permanent collection. Liu, a professor of art at Mills College in Oakland, California, recently received a Lifetime Achievement in Printmaking award from SGC International, one of the most prestigious printmakers organizations in the world.
They all have children, and some have husbands. Nevertheless, they’ve earned acclaim. Their work is in high demand, and they’re pushing at the glass ceiling that women in many professions experience.
