Guerrilla Girls (Hannah Miller)

The Guerrilla Girls are a group of feminist artists that call themselves the "Conscience of the Art World". They formed in 1985 in response to the rampant sexism and racism they saw in the art world. They originally focused on the art museums in New York City and more recently have branched out into other countries as well. They examine the gender imbalances within museums and art shows and since have also looked at this gender imbalance in the film industry and pop culture in general. They use creative posters and other displays on a wide scale throughout cities in order to get their activist messages across. They want to "rehabilitate the 'F-word', feminism" and make it so that more people will want to call themselves feminists and work for women's rights.

This is one of their most famous works which addressed the 1984 exhibition An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in which only 13 out of the 169 artists included were women—none of them women of color. This is the event that propelled them into action and thus the Guerrilla Girls were created in 1985.



The Guerrilla Girls use humor very strongly within their work while they are addressing such serious issues. One example of this is within this poster.



They wear gorilla masks when they present their work because they believe that their anonymity makes their message stronger. To go along with this they adopt alternate names which are the names of famous female artists of the past. Their name is a play on the idea of guerrilla warfare because they don't want people to know who they are going to target next. They have expanded and in 2001 they split into Guerrilla Girls, Inc., GuerrillaGirlsBroadBand and Guerrilla Girls On Tour. This has allowed them to reach a greater audience and spread their message to more and more people and locations. They have also published a number of books including The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art, Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers, The Guerrilla Girls Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes and The Guerrilla Girls Art Museum Activity Book.

A few more of their posters and billboards, which shows how they use facts and bold graphics to prove their point and work for women's rights.





(click on the images to make them larger)

This video gives a great overview to the Guerrilla Girls that discusses their goals, their history and provides a great deal of images. It is a presentation by two of the Guerrilla Girls at the MOMA Feminist Future Symposium.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHVBZh5HBgc

Their website is-
guerrillagirls.com

I had heard of the Guerrilla Girls before this project but after doing research I like them even more. I think it is very interesting how they chose to get their messages across and how they like to maintain their anonymity. I think their images are aesthetically pleasing as well as being very powerful in their message. I also appreciate the humor that they use and I really enjoyed researching them.