There have been a slew of female artists in the past few centuries who have left an indelible mark on the art scene. But who are the Asian flag bearers? Yayoi Kusama is exceptional by any standard. An 89-year-old woman from Japan with pink hair doesn’t sound like the obvious choice as the leader of the ladies’ team. She’s so high up the rankings that she beats most female contenders from any part of the world in terms of price and acclaim.
She is, unfortunately, one of those rule-proving exceptions. What happened to the rest of the most populous continent in the world?
Asia isn’t only big, it also has the oldest cultures. This seems to make habits of male domination even harder to break. The promised land for women artists is North America – newer, brasher and more encouraging – although not for females with political aspirations. The USA, Canada and Mexico have never had a woman president or prime minister, while Asia has had many.
When it comes to household names in the world of contemporary Asian female artists, there aren’t any apart from Kusama. Still, there’s hope and lots of goodwill. Christie’s held a dedicated auction of such works in 2016. The auction house went so far as to scour Asian philosophy to emerge with a suitably edgy title, Half the Sky, courtesy of Mao Zedong’s Women hold up half the sky.
The sad thing is that this groundbreaking auction was online only. The total sales were around RM300,000 for 45 works, which doesn’t suggest a feverish buying habit yet. Many of the names in the auction are at the top of the field and perhaps do better when they aren’t put in a women-only enclosure. All the artists representing Asia on that occasion were from the eastern end of the continent.
For some reason, West Asia is treated quite separately; more surprisingly as it has been a hot market for longer. So, which are the women’s names that have made the biggest impression around the world? Here are some who have held up at least part of the sky.
YAYOI KUSAME
Everyone’s favourite expression of the kooky creative type with a message. She has spent much of her life in a mental hospital, which has done nothing to reduce the desirability of her deceptively simple works.
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“My art originates from hallucinations only I can see.”
SHIRIN NESHAT
Another Iranian who achieved most of her success outside her home country. She put ‘chador art’ on the map and has been using calligraphy and women’s issues to great effect for almost 30 years. Her trademark photographs are large, as are the prices. Film has become a favoured medium recently.
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“An interesting phenomenon in recent years is seeing this incredible rise of Iranian women as cultural activists.
MONIR SHAHROUDY FARMANFARMAIAN
It’s the supposedly most repressive Islamic nations that have turned out some of Asia’s most successful artists (with the exception of Kusama). Iran leads the women’s world. Its most famous artist, of royal descent, is the first Iranian woman artist to get her own museum. There aren’t many others throughout Asia – except Kusama of course. Monir has been taking the western world by storm since the 1950s as part of a New York group that included Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. At 95-years-old, she’s creating art and dazzling the world with works that can fetch millions of ringgit.
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“I gave Andy Warhol one of my crystal balls. He had it in his living room…”
LEE BUL
Fresh from a triumph in London last year at the newly renovated Hayward Gallery, she inspired poetry among the UK locals, so exciting were her works. Most of the poets were women. This Korean artist’s work is very much about women – and the patriarchy. Using subject matter such as cyborgs has also brought her an audience of the occasional young male.
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“Any change we might perceive in the five minutes that we occupy, metaphorically speaking, in the aeonic expanse of history is illusory.”
LIN TIANMIAO
Although she works a lot with her husband, Lin was among the first women from China to win artistic recognition. She uses feminism in an individualistic way, believing the typical form is a Western innovation. She’s suitably appalled that China’s party congress is just about all male.
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“I don’t think there is any feminism in China.”
BHARTI KHER
Bharti Kher is another artist with a famous artist husband (Subodh Gupta) and complicated nationality. She was brought up in the UK but has a strong cultural attachment to India and has lived there for more than 20 years as part of the ultimate art power couple. Bharti’s work can fetch many million ringgit. Her most recognisable motif is the sperm-shaped bindi.
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“Yes, I am a feminist”
SHILPA GUPTA
Another artist from India, this one has tackled every medium you might care to mention. Everything from websites to sound performances has been used by Shilpa as part of her commentary on religion, consumer culture and above all the shifting nature of borders. She not only does everything but has sold in many key locations, including London and New York auctions. With her interest in people who take the creative credit for the efforts of others, she’ll no doubt be inspired by the recent Keira Knightley film Colette about men doing this to women in 19th century France.
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“One of the crucial functions of art is that it is a space for individual opinion, in a time, when all visual imagery around us is dominated with either corporate or political propaganda. “
HUMA BHABHA
Another artist who lives in two worlds, on this occasion Pakistan and the USA. Her works are often described as grotesque. They’re certainly in a state of ruin, and usually human. Her love of horror films and the science-fiction classic Alien was a step towards her famous work We Come in Peace. This enormous sculpture of an alien was installed on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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‘The idea of monument and death is the ultimate raw material of art.’
GERALDINE JAVIER
The Philippines is one of Southeast Asia’s strongest creative presences around the world, and women are very much part of this movement. Geraldine Javier is one of the best-known names, and her most popular work, For she loved fiercely, and she is well-loved, is a tribute to another female artist. It’s about pain and suffering, so who better to represent than Frida Kahlo. The misfortunes of her life helped Kahlo gave herself entirely to art. Having trained as a nurse before becoming an artist, Geraldine is well placed to understand the painful side of the human condition.
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“The nuns taught us of the sacrifices of Jesus and the other martyrs and from this I can deduce that the Catholic religion‘s foundation was built on blood and guilt as a consequence.”
YEE I-LANN
Yes, there is a Malaysian woman who has gone out into the world with her wares and been welcomed. The international art community has been enjoying her breathtaking works since a record was set at Christie’s Hong Kong in 2008 for Huminodun. Going for more than 10 times its estimate, this enormous image encapsulates the magic that I-Lann can weave with a digital print. Her work is often about women or politics, and always about the region. Southeast Asia has still not captivated the world in the way that East, South and West Asia have. With impressions such as these, there’s still hope.
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“What was important to me was that I learnt what was going on.”