THE GUERRILLA GIRLS
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uerrilla Girls is an anonymous group of radical feminist, female artists devoted to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. The group formed in New York City in 1985 with the mission of bringing gender and racial inequality into focus within the greater arts community. The group employs culture jamming in the form of posters, books, billboards, and public appearances to expose discrimination and corruption. To remain anonymous, members were gorilla masks and use pseudonyms, they’re identities are concealed because issues matter more than individuals. Throughout their existence, they have gained the most attention for their bold protest art. The Guerrilla Girls’ projects (mostly posters at first) express observations, concerns, and ideals regarding numerous social topics. Their art has always been fact-driven, and informed by the group’s unique approach to data collection, such as “weenie counts.” To be more inclusive and to make their posters more eye-catching, the Guerrilla Girls tend to pair facts with humorous images. In the spring of 1985, seven women launched the Guerrilla Girls in response to the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture” (1984), whose roster of 165 artists included only 13 women. Inaugurating MoMA’s newly renovated and expanded building, this exhibition claimed to survey that era’s most important painters and sculptors from 17 countries. The proportion of artists of color was even smaller, none of whom were women. They protested in front of MoMA. And that’s when the Guerrilla Girls were born. When the protests yielded little success, the Guerrilla Girls wheat-pasted posters throughout downtown Manhattan. When asked about the masks, the girls answer “We were Guerrillas before we were Gorillas. From the beginning the press wanted publicity photos. We needed a disguise. No one remembers, for sure, how we got our fur, but one story is that at an early meeting, an original girl, a bad speller, wrote ‘Gorilla’ instead of ‘Guerrilla.’ It was an enlightened mistake. It gave us our ‘mask-ulinity.’” In an interview with New York Times the Guerrilla Girls were quoted, “Anonymous free speech is protected by the Constitution. You’d be surprised what comes out of your mouth when you wear a mask.”
Soon after, the group expanded their focus to include racism in the art world, attracting artists of color. They also took on projects outside of New York, enabling them to address sexism and racism nationally and internationally. Though the art world has remained the group’s main focus, the Guerrilla Girls’ agenda has included sexism and racism in films, mass and popular culture, and politics. Since 1985, the Guerrilla Girls have witnessed many positive changes, including an increased awareness of sexism and greater accountability on the part of curators, art dealers, collectors and critics. The group is credited, above all, with sparking dialogue, and bringing attention to issues of sexism and racism within the arts.
Referenbce: https://www.guerrillagirls.com/our-story/ https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Guerilla%20Girls&item_type=topic