"Art produced by women was not treated seriously by art historians - men. Many painters and critics believed that women's entry into the profession would degrade the art market."
Sylwia Zientek (born in 1974 in Olsztyn, in the north of Poland) has written historical novels and biographies but most recently has returned to her childhood passion - art. Her last two books in Polish were "Lunia and Modigliani" (2022) and "Polish women in Monparnasse" (2021).
Her most recent book is "Tylko one. Polska sztuka bez mężczyzn" ("Only her. Polish art without men") and it is the subject of her interview for the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
Zientek has admitted that the title of her new book is somewhat controversial: "It was not my intention to exclude male artists, but simply to announce that this is a book devoted to women artists." Zientek adds that books on the history of art published even 5 or 10 years ago tended to minimise the role of women artists, and the further back we go the worse it gets:
"Sitting in the Koszykowa Library, working on my book, I did an experiment. I counted how many women artists were discussed in books on Polish art. The results were dreadful. The names of Boznańska and Stryjeńska came up most often and when it came to contemporary art - Szapocznikow, Abakanowicz... and that's about it. There was not even mention of Łempicka who until recently was considered a cosmopolitan and not a Polish artist."
That the exclusion of women is not merely a Polish phenomenon, Zientek makes clear by criticising the canonical and internationally famous work The Story of Art, by Ernst Gombrich:
"This is a work that has sold over 9 million copies worldwide. And only one female artist makes an appearance - but only in the 16th edition! In the 1996 edition, the German sculptor and graphic artist Käthe Kollwitz was added. There is still no place for Artemisia Gentileschi, Frida Kahlo or Louise Bourgeois."
Zientek lives in Luxembourg where she also collects works of art.
Source: PAP
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