Women Take the Floor at the Museum of Fine Arts

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is an encyclopedic museum, meaning it displays art from a variety of eras and locations in an easily understandable way. The art on exhibit is predominately an illustration of the art historical canon. There is a room dedicated to Monet and there is at least one painting from all the major players across the centuries in the museum’s many galleries. 

The exhibit Women Take the Floor is a bit of a refreshing surprise. On view now until May 3, 2021, the exhibit features several galleries organized by style and showcases female artists almost exclusively. There is a gallery focused on the action of art making, a fiber arts gallery, a print gallery, a portrait gallery featuring depictions of women by women, and a gallery of landscapes by women. Due to the longer length of the installation, the museum will rotate the pieces out every six months, meaning the exhibit will change completely three times over. 

Women Take the Floor: Shining a Light on Female Artists

According to the info panel at the beginning of the exhibit, art by female artists make up about 13% of most museum collections, while the MFA’s female art collection is smaller at 8%. The MFA has taken the laudable position that this must be rectified. The exhibit takes up the whole third floor of the American wing and provides a comprehensive view of art made by female artists, primarily from the museum’s own collection.

Reviews of the exhibit have been largely positive. The Boston Globe and WBUR both put out glowing reviews^[1]. The Boston Globe says, of the physical space of the exhibit, “The entry gallery is a rupture in space, big blocks of wall tumbling into the gallery, girded by red frames. As an architectural metaphor, it works: The cool neutrality of the white cube is fractured every which way, a declarative gesture in physical space. This is not business as usual with words, works, and even the building itself.”^[2]

They are right. I have been to this exhibit and it dominates the space. The comprehensive nature of the exhibit almost overwhelms the viewer, but it is well laid out and its organization is easily understood and navigated. 

The curators behind this exhibit are definitely making a statement. This exhibit is a force to be reckoned with. It features so many artists who have created so many different pieces of art, in different styles and methods, it’s as if the exhibit is asking how we could have possibly missed all of this for so long. It is an admonishment of both the viewer and the museum for neglecting these artists and their creations. The MFA has also timed this exhibit to coincide with the anniversary of women’s suffrage, which occurred in 1920^[3].

A Community of Female Artists

There is a good mix of artists that are widely known, such as Georgia O’Keefe and Frida Kahlo, and artists that are less well-known. It elevates the lesser known artists to the same level as their more famous fellows. But it also puts the star artists in a context of female art through history. They are not isolated wunderkinds who came out of nowhere or were only inspired by their male counterparts; there is a canon of female artists who inspire and support each other. 

As mentioned before, the reviews have been largely positive, but criticisms are present as well. There is a concern that there is too much going on in this exhibit and that the female-created art has just been taken from the basement and thrown into seven galleries on the third floor. As Murray Whyte from the Boston Globe says, though, “After a century and a half of doing far too little, is it even possible to do too much^[4]?”

I would say, given the obvious thought that went into this exhibit and how well it’s been organized, it’s clear that the museum staff respects these artists. It’s not just a hastily thrown together apology for ignoring these artists for so long, but a chance for these artists to finally shine among their peers.

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^[1] Cristela Guerra, “This MFA Exhibition Tells Art History Through The Female Gaze,” WBUR, https://www.wbur.org/artery/2019/09/13/women-take-the-floor-mfa-female-gaze.

^[2] Murray Whyte, “At the MFA, a New Show Confronts Centuries of Sexism — Including the Museum’s Own,” Boston Globe,  https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/art/2019/09/19/mfa-new-show-confronts-centuries-sexism-including-museum-own/mNst6lFdY4c79e7Hiz37SI/story.html.

^[3] Ashley Bleimes, “Seven-Gallery ‘Takeover’ of Art by Women at MFA Boston Marks 100th Anniversary of U.S. Women’s Suffrage Amendment,” https://www.mfa.org/press-release/women-take-the-floor.

^[4] Murray Whyte, “At the MFA, a New Show Confronts Centuries of Sexism — Including the Museum’s Own,” Boston Globe,  https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/art/2019/09/19/mfa-new-show-confronts-centuries-sexism-including-museum-own/mNst6lFdY4c79e7Hiz37SI/story.html.

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