About: The Blank Pages
24 Apr - 15 Jun 2014
ABOUT: THE BLANK PAGES
The Basic Art Series is now checked for errors and we hereby send
the edited list back to you for correction
24 April - 15 June 2014
This e-mail will be sent to Taschen and Petra Lamers-Schütze on the opening of the exhibition
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book covers in an installation, where all artists are displayed with a glossy front cover, both the published and the unpublished, both the men and the women, some unpublished and therefore not yet written.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
-----------------------------------------------
In the installation About: The Blank Pages the artists EvaMarie Lindahl and Ditte Ejlerskov are investigating the specific format and process of selection concerning the art encyclopedia. The framework for this project is the Taschen Basic Art Series, but it might as well have been any other mainstream publishing house. Lindahl and Ejlerskov entered the project by asking the following question: Can you name one woman artist published by Taschen Basic Art? Is your answer Frida Kahlo? You are correct; she is one of the 5 women that Taschen ever published in this series that consists of about 100 books.
In their separate art practices EvaMarie Lindahl and Ditte Ejlerskov have been interested in the format and function of the encyclopedia and the structure in which different types of knowledge is archived. They both graduated from Malmö Art Academy, Lindahl in 2008 and Ejlerskov in 2009. They live and work in Malmö.
The Basic Art Series is now checked for errors and we hereby send
the edited list back to you for correction
24 April - 15 June 2014
This e-mail will be sent to Taschen and Petra Lamers-Schütze on the opening of the exhibition
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
-----------------------------------------------
In the installation About: The Blank Pages the artists EvaMarie Lindahl and Ditte Ejlerskov are investigating the specific format and process of selection concerning the art encyclopedia. The framework for this project is the Taschen Basic Art Series, but it might as well have been any other mainstream publishing house. Lindahl and Ejlerskov entered the project by asking the following question: Can you name one woman artist published by Taschen Basic Art? Is your answer Frida Kahlo? You are correct; she is one of the 5 women that Taschen ever published in this series that consists of about 100 books.
In their separate art practices EvaMarie Lindahl and Ditte Ejlerskov have been interested in the format and function of the encyclopedia and the structure in which different types of knowledge is archived. They both graduated from Malmö Art Academy, Lindahl in 2008 and Ejlerskov in 2009. They live and work in Malmö.