Perhaps we can make a couple of cynical calculations:1. Such documents are meant to look impressive,but nobody actuallyreads them. 2. Nobody would dare criticise a plan that promises to right historical wrongs and do marvellous things for women and gender diverse people.
In brief,if you criticise this plan you’re going to be called sexist,reactionary,homophobic or transphobic etc. I’m willing to take that risk – not because I am any of the above,but because I sincerely believe public galleries and museums should focus on the quality of exhibitions and acquisitions without becoming immersed in the linguistic doublethink of identity politics,which intimidates rather than liberates.
Such practices impose a neurotic set of rules and regulations on everybody,allowing apparatchiks with little intellectual substance or art historical knowledge to rise rapidly to the top. Regardless of gender,it’s much easier to learn a set of ideological strictures than it is to acquire scholarship and imagination.
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The NGA’s stated goal of “40:40:20 collection development” suggests that curators or administrators will actively police acquisitions in accordance with a quota system. If these new percentages are not being enforced why bother announcing them?
It may appear that the gallery’s policy is to acquire 40 per cent of works by women,40 per cent by men,and 20 per cent by non-binary artists,but when one reads the fine print,that final 20 per cent means “gender diverse”. This “may be comprised of people of any gender,including non-binary,gender diverse,cis and trans women,cis and trans men,and those who wish to not identify.”
In other words:20 per cent ofwhatever we like – which means the NGA could acquire 60 per cent male or female and still be within the guidelines. The more fundamental problem is that works of art are not best judged by the gender of the artist. It’s theoretically possible,even today,that 100 per cent of the year’s acquisitions may be by women or even non-binary artists,should their works be judged more worthy than those by males.