Sotheby’s has contacted artists involved in a recent row over its planned online sale of Glitch art, which was postponed earlier this week, following mounting pressure from the online community over its lack of artwork. artists identifying as women.
The “Natively Digital: Glitch-ism” sale was supposed to take place from March 24-31 but fell through following a flurry of tweets from artists including OONA and Stellabelle, denouncing the lack of work for women in sales. A few hours later, artist Patrick Amadon confirmed in a tweet that he was withdrawing his work from sale and that: “While I think this was a genuine oversight and the team is well intentioned, the lack representation is a serious issue and we need to address this in our space.”
In a statement, the auction house said it was taking a break [the sale to] “repair the imbalance of representation within the sale and will restart with a more equitable and diverse group of artists at a later date”. The initial sale consisted of approximately 20 lots with a total presale estimate of $560,000 to $870,000.
An artist, Rosa Menkmen, who expressed concern that the auction house used an image of her work in the auction preview, without including her work in the sale, confirmed that Since the postponement, “Sotheby’s has contacted me to see how we can move forward and possibly participate in the auction. It entirely depends on what is changed and what they are actually offering.
The wider online conversation was documented and posted to a sub-stack page collated by Stellabelle and includes tweets from artist Dawnia Darstone (letsglitchit) who claims she was asked to offer analysis for the original sale without being offered financial compensation.
The incident is part of a larger concern over the long-documented lack of female representation in physical art markets that is making its way into the crypto sphere. A study by Art Tactic, published late last year, claimed that only 5% of the money earned from NFT sales went to artists who identify as women.
“I wouldn’t stop at NFT art,” says Amadon. “Women and non-binaries across the spectrum of the art world are seeing their contributions marginalized and their awards are suffering and because their awards are suffering, they’re getting less attention and we’re back in the cycle. “
