Art Herstory- The Guerrilla Girls

A Lesson on Art Her-Story📷

A Picture of the Guerilla Girls

Photo: George Lange

March 2020

Tackling the Art World: Guerilla Style

This month the important feminist(s) in the arts I’d like to talk about are the Guerilla Girls. Known for their iconic gorilla masks, these rebellious and courageous women—who have chosen famous female figures names to remain anonymous—fight racism and sexism through the art world by opening up issues through the medium itself. Starting in 1985 in New York, the Guerilla Girls made art pieces that criticized museums, art collectors, and galleries for only showing or buying art done white male artists. Often, these people would excuse not purchasing or showing art done by minorities or women by saying “it just did not sell”, which was a grossly incorrect statement to cover up the blatant discrimination towards women and people of color in the arts. The eye-catching images, blocky bold words, and outrageous gorilla faces caught people’s attention as the Guerilla Girls very openly stated their anger towards these institutions using numbers and facts to make their points. Naming themselves as ‘the conscience of the art world’, they targeted magazines, museums, and collectors by writing their names down onto posters showing how much art that was done by females or minorities they had shown (News flash! It wasn’t a lot). For example, in 1985, the MoMA declared that they were doing an exhibition called “An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture” that claimed it encapsulated all art that was created at the time. This was very false, since out of the 169 artists only 13 were women (that’s right) and there were no minority artists at all. Because of this, outrage sparked as the Guerilla Girls took to the streets protesting this disregard for a whole group of talented artists. Hidden behind comical gorilla masks, they plastered posters over every wall in New York, especially near the MoMA, and ran through the streets demanding change. From then on, they continued to organize demonstrations in museums, such as the Guggenheim, they felt were underrepresenting artists.

In a recent interview done by the TATE museum (2018), a Guerilla Girl mentions: “If art is a record of culture, and the art doesn't look like the culture, and the art is told only through the work of white males, that’s basically what it is. It’s the history of patriarchy, not the history of who we are”. This cannot be anything but the truth! If art is an expression of our culture, then it should be all of our cultures, not just white men. If this continues, our future generations who look at this period art history will only see patriarchally based artwork, which is not the representational of all art created during this time.

Women and people of color, even in 2020, are still trying to break barriers in the art world, but are still being pushed to the side. Women’s art is rarely found in major museums or art galleries (the Guerilla Girls have done a piece on this; please look to #2). It’s time to make a change. Buy art done by women and minorities. Support them. Fight the art institutions that try to keep certain artists away from their walls!

The Guerilla Girls are still active today, and have carved pathways for women and minority artists to express and make more bold movements in the art world. Their art will be a great moment in feminist her-story.

~ "Alice J."

Here’s some Guerilla Girl artwork!

#1: “Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum?”

📷