Born: 1966, United States
Died: NA
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women creator Allison Tyra’s book Uncredited: Women’s Overlooked, Misattributed, and Stolen Work.
In other words, apart from the historical issue of collecting and featuring works primarily by men, the issue is continuing to be perpetuated in terms of what museums buy and what they show the public. When she was chief curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Helen Molesworth commented, “Most museums still maintain a commitment to an idea of the best, or quality, or genius. And I’m not saying I don’t agree with those as values. But I think those values have been created over hundreds of years to favour white men.” Molesworth was fired in 2018, after clashing with the (male) director, who claimed Molesworth was “undermining the museum.” Given the acclaim and popularity of shows she had curated, it was not an issue of her work. Rather it seems that Molesworth daring to comment on gender, race and other disparities led to her termination. The LA Times noted that the situation recalled the director’s “high-profile exhibitions for two white male artists and Molesworth’s for an African-American male artist and a Latin American female artist.” In 2017, she had sarcastically commented, “The patriarchy is over in L.A.!… I am never under pressure to support the work of extremely affluent white male artists who are collected by the affluent white male people who run the museum.”
Molesworth’s firing gained attention not only in its own right, but as part of a larger pattern. Only the week before, María Inés Rodriguez, who spent four years as the director of Bordeaux’s Contemporary Art Museum, had been fired for “managerial difficulties.” This prompted almost 80 prominent members of the art world to publish a letter decrying the action, saying “We are stupefied by the announced dismissal of a consummate professional who is internationally renowned for her curiosity, the pertinence of her curatorial programme, and the quality of her exhibitions.”
Molesworth’s comments, sarcastic though they were, highlight an important point—even if curators and collection managers are women, they are still subject to the influence of directors, board members, and other stakeholders. Three of the world’s most prominent museums, the British Museum, the Louvre, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, have never had female directors, even though MOMA was founded by three women: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss, and Mary Quinn Sullivan. The 2018 Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey found that although women make up the majority of professional staff, they remained underrepresented among leadership roles.