{"id":10385,"date":"2026-03-22T15:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T13:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monika-griefahn.de\/?p=10385"},"modified":"2026-03-22T15:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T13:24:13","slug":"100-years-of-gedok-promoting-womens-perspectives-in-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monika-griefahn.de\/en\/2026\/03\/100-years-of-gedok-promoting-womens-perspectives-in-art\/","title":{"rendered":"100 Years of GEDOK \u2013 Promoting Women\u2019s Perspectives in Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women-only clubs and associations\u2014are they still important today? At the very least, the celebrations marking \u201c100 Years of the Association of Women Artists and Art Patrons (GEDOK)\u201d have once again clearly demonstrated to me what they can achieve. GEDOK, for example, highlights how women in the arts have historically faced structural disadvantages, even though they produced excellent work. The conditions may be better today, but\u2014keyword \u201cgender pay gap\u201d\u2014we still have to fight to be heard, seen, and recognized.<\/p>\n

It gave me great pleasure to deliver the keynote address at the GEDOK ceremony. Long after my time as an active cultural politician, I once again engaged with the talented women from the worlds of art, music, and literature and took great joy in them.<\/p>\n

\"\"Here is the speech I gave:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many modern female artists can you, dear guests who are not GEDOK members, name? Female sculptors? Female painters? Female musicians? Women in literature are probably the first to come to mind\u2026 But you will certainly have far more names of male artists in your heads than of women.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Most women in modern art and music history have been forgotten, and there are structural reasons for this. Although they have contributed to art history on an equal footing with men, female artists have not received the recognition they deserve. For centuries, they were excluded from art schools, galleries, and museums. Before the rise of feminism in the 1970s, they had virtually no platform for exhibiting their works. No wonder, then, that major female figures remain significantly less visible even today.<\/em><\/p>\n

One important exception is Ida Dehmel, who founded GEDOK as early as the 1920s\u2014which is why we are gathered here today!<\/em><\/p>\n

Great female visual artists, however, contributed to all the art movements that preceded this era of female emancipation, particularly from Impressionism in the late 19th century through Abstract Expressionism to Surrealism. These artists, who worked in the shadow of their male contemporaries, remain little known to this day.<\/em><\/p>\n

In Impressionism, female painters were part of the close-knit circle of Impressionists; they often exhibited alongside them and shaped the style through their own perspectives, frequently focusing on domestic scenes, depictions of women, and private spaces. <\/em><\/p>\n