Art and Politics –Guerrilla Girls

The Guerrilla Girls are a group of feminist artists, known for their posters promoting woman and people of colour in art. The group are established in New York and formed in 1985, after the exhibition “An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture” was held in the Museum of Modern Art, which revealed that only 13 of the 169 featured artists were women, and the ratio of artists of colour was even smaller. The Guerrilla Girls create works which combine text, content and snappy graphics, which exposes feminist notions in a humorous manner. Their intention is to change the minds of audiences, who initially disagree with their views. Their first works involved putting up posters along the streets of New York which discredit the gender and racial imbalance of artists represented in galleries and museums. However over they expanded their boundaries to examine Hollywood’s film industry, popular culture and gender stereotypes. The Guerrilla Girls have also pointed out that more than a third of their works have addressed larger social issues, such as violence against women, racial inequality, war, reproductive choice and what they consider to be misguided political policies. The members of the original group always wear gorilla masks when appearing in public as the Guerrilla Girls, assuming the names of deceased female artists.One of their most famous works was the poster with the headline “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?” This poster was run as an advertisement in the public buses of New York City. This work was done in response to a count they did of naked males and naked females in the artworks, and the number of female artists in the collection. It revealed that less than 5% of the artists in the museums Modern Art section were women, but 85% of the nudes were female.