Isa Genzken: An artist at the top – of the (second-to-)last male domain

Keywords: Most important German female artist, women in the art world, equality, media coverage and private life, connection between success and quality in art

Difficult breakups, online opinion manipulation and dubious search results aside; poor media communication of art that is not immediately understandable and private artist lives aside:

Isa Genzken has long been considered the most important, or at least one of the leading, visual artists in the world; for example, she was as the “most important German artist” artist ranking of the art magazine Monopol .

In non-judgmental information systems on art that simply reflect presence in exhibitions, public collections, and sales, the situation is different: When Monopol named her the most important living artist, Isa Genzken was ranked around 250th on artfacts.net, for example; currently she is ranked 62nd – but among artists worldwide, ahead of Giacommetti, Koons, and Twombly.

This is despite the fact that sales prices significantly influence the ranking, which means a considerable disadvantage for all world-leading female artists from the outset, because they earn fractions of what their male colleagues earn.

“men as better artists,” presented below in context, can be wonderfully misunderstood and misquoted. One can only hope that not too many journalists will be tempted to stir up discussions about men being better at (or women being better at) art during the upcoming anniversary celebrations surrounding the artist; this would plunge our civilization—with equality as a fundamental characteristic—even further into the abyss (did you know that there's a new magazine called FRÄULEIN, “an anchor in a fast-paced life,” “building on culture, fashion, ambition, life, and love in a playful design,” and “a little more emotional and authentic than the others”?).

In media outlets that seriously deal with art and culture, Isa Genzken is interviewed, portrayed, and perceived as one of the most important German artists, regardless of any personal/private difficulties.

However, the devil is in the details here as well: sometimes an artist is the focus in order to capture and illustrate the breadth and complexity of his work; sometimes a female artist who (not explicitly named, but implied: despite her gender) has achieved great success in the art world.

Some find it irrelevant that rankings focused on success in dollars do not place female artists in appropriate positions, because ordering art according to talent and the quality of artworks contradicts the most useful purpose of art for society – to stimulate citizens to think.

But that's precisely the point; these rankings hold up a harsh mirror to society: they reveal that the causal relationships that lead to success or failure in the art world are currently only to a small extent due to the talents of the artists.

Instead, market mechanisms have taken over art, and these mechanisms don't bring the best works to the forefront, just as they don't promote the best products—quite the opposite. The best artist is the one who best masters the market, not the one who creates the best or consistently good art.

This leaves little chance for talent, because market dominance, besides requiring unpleasant audacity (which is foreign to most truly good artists), also has to be bought with high investments.

Certainly, every successful art form needs ideas, but all people are capable of developing ideas (unless they have already been so smoothed over during their school years that no edges remain for idea development).

Certainly, every artist needs expert support for public presentation, but that's not the deciding factor; any artist who can connect with others and inspire them with their ideas will find that support (if they still have any enthusiasm left; this is becoming increasingly critical for Germans who weren't born into wealth). In this way, every influencing factor could be questioned, but ultimately, the unequal distribution of funds at the beginning remains the limiting factor for success in the art world.

One influencing factor can easily be proven with facts: Being born male is a clear advantage for success in the art world, because otherwise 83 of the world's 100 leading artists wouldn't be men (and 77.4% of the 500 leading artists). Sounds bad? But no, women are making great strides; in 2012, there were only 16 women among the top 100 instead of 17, and a remarkable 80.8% of the top 500 were men.

All joking aside, being born a man is still an advantage in the workplace today, bringing men, on average, a fifth more pay for practically nothing. Much is written and said about this – currently somewhat less so in the wake of the "MeToo" debate , because such minor details are sometimes overlooked in light of the sheer number of men in positions of power who can't keep their hands or other body parts off subordinate women – instead of simply reporting that this fact contradicts both human rights and our constitution, and demanding that the legislature finally fulfill its duty to enact a law on equal pay for equal work.

But the difficulties begin with the fact that women are demonstrably weaker than men? That would be an argument if the 1.70m tall man on the construction site earned less than his 1.90m tall colleague.

Isa Genzken cares little about theoretical emancipation and even less about superfluous media chatter; in an interview (bit.ly/2D33CdB), when asked whether women have a harder time in the art market, she replied, “No, they’re simply not as good.”.

However, she goes on to say:

The best artists are gay. Take Leonardo da Vinci , Michelangelo, even Gerhard Richter .”

Despite his four children and three marriages, he could be categorized as “gay” (and “best artist”), just as she herself is gay and a good artist.

Gay artists are much more sensitive and refined; and Isa Genzken obviously does not differentiate according to any conventional, randomly distributed sexual characteristics at birth.

To put it succinctly, there are several reasons why Isa Genzken's art is something very special.

Why the German art scene has failed so profoundly for so long in perceiving and appreciating this artist is still difficult to understand (and “ art that is difficult to understand ” is no excuse for experts).