Who is an artist? Black women in Brazilian contemporary art

Abstract

The universe of art has specialized for centuries and dictates which works and languages should be understood as worthy of reflection and would serve for aesthetic fruition. And in this history of Western art, some names are raised to the status of artist par excellence, people who would be geniuses and would have a divine gift and could speak on behalf of art, with their works appearing in art books, academic researches, and in public and private collections. However, a close look at this Western history of art makes us realize that, in general, those who are understood to have the artistic gift are white men; thus, this official history of art has been questioned in researches that have unveiled the sexism and racism that reigns in the universe of art. Here, I aim to intersect the theories of the so-called Black feminisms with the sociology of art, having as a working issue the following question: do raciality and gender play a role in the legitimization process of artists who are women and Blacks in the field of contemporary Brazilian art? In search of answers, interviews carried out for the ongoing research, which may help to understand the disempowerment and activism of such artists.