Guerrilla Girls

Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of feminist, female artists who are devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. They were founded in 1986 after a Museum of Modern Art in New York opened an exhibition which was a summary of the most significant contemporary artists in the world. Out of 169 artists that were mentioned, only 13 of them were women which angered the group. Also the curator of the event mentioned at the exhibition that if an artist’s work is not on this show they should “rethink HIS career” which led to the group fighting back. To start the protests women demonstrated outside galleries with plaques and leaflets but sadly this did not attract the general public’s attention.

After the event, the Guerrilla Girls decided to continue into researching other influential galleries and noticed that they almost exhibited no female artists. When the figures they collected were released, figures in the art world were blaming each other which became a huge continuous cycle. Then the group decided to place the information they collected onto posters and placed them around New York City to the public. The posters were a huge success and thousands of requests were made for them to be placed across the world. Also, they have been placed in galleries such as the “Tate” in London that holds a variety of the groups work. The majority of posters on display present how women are presented in the most iconic galleries with the information collected. Other than posters, the group have created billboards, bus advertisements, magazine spreads and letter writing campaigns. In addition to displaying posters, they have lectured widely in many colleges and universities but also have published books such as “Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls”, “a history of the movement”, and “A Guerrilla Girl’s Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art”. The huge success, surprised the group as they only protested against one event but has led to a global campaign with supporters across the world. All the information they collected was primary as the group counted each piece of work. Also, they have sources of information from magazines such as “Art in America”.

By the 1990s the Guerilla Girls activism expanded into other such as environmentalism, abortion, and theatre. In 2001 the group split into three independent groups which included the Guerrilla Girls on Tour, (a traveling theatre group), “GuerrillaGirlsBroadBand”, a digital-media group and Guerrilla Girls which focuses on the original art group.

The group are anonymous because they wanted the public to be focused on the issues rather than the “girls” artwork and personalities. They call themselves “Guerilla” because they wanted to play with the fear of warfare within the art world and make people afraid of them when they strike next. The group call themselves “girls” to shock the public and make them upset as calling a grown woman “girl” can imply that she is mature. Also, they used “girls “as they didn’t want the term to be used against them when they are campaigning. Finally, the masks are used to disguise themselves and use them for publicity photos.

The Guerilla Girls have made an impact in the art world as curators and collectors are collecting more women’s work and commissioning them in galleries.