The Guerrilla Girls collective was founded following the 1984 exhibition An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA. This exhibition, which was intended to provide an overview of the artistic output of the time, featured only 13 women out of 169 artists.
Kathe Kollwitz and Frida Kahlo then joined forces to found the Guerrilla Girls, a collective comprising various members—primarily artists—who maintain their anonymity by wearing gorilla masks and adopt the names of famous deceased women. Very quickly, the collective expanded into various branches, much like a franchise.
The core of their work consists of a number of actions, primarily poster campaigns, performances, and videos, as well as a range of items designed as merchandise tied to their causes, which help fund the collective.
To date, they have carried out hundreds of projects (street posters, banners, actions, books, and videos) all over the world. They also stage interventions and organize museum exhibitions in which they denounce the misconduct and discriminatory practices they observe.
Their book Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly brings together hundreds of their projects and was named one of the best art books of 2020 by the New York Times* and the *Los Angeles Times.
At the time, American museums organized few exhibitions dedicated to female artists and rarely acquired works by women artists for their collections. Wearing their gorilla masks, they protested in front of New York's major museums. They also created posters based on statistical studies to highlight the pervasive sexism and racism in the arts and culture. Their famous poster poses the question Do women have to be naked to get into the Met Museum? They then pointed out that only 5% of the works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's permanent collection were signed by female artists, but that 85% of the nudes in the collection depicted women.
Their motto: "Do one thing. If it works, do another. If it doesn't, do another anyway. Creative complaining works!"
Artworks
Set of 12 signed digital prints and 5 videos
20.47 x 28.35 in ( 52 x 72 cm )
Board Book with round corners, 22 pages
7.87 x 7.87 x 0.39 in ( 20,3 x 20,3 x 1,2 cm )
Signed poster
22.83 x 29.53 in ( 58 x 75 cm )
Banner
55.12 x 78.74 in ( 140 x 200 cm )
Signed poster
11.81 x 25.59 in ( 30,3 x 65,6 cm )
Signed poster
11.81 x 25.59 in ( 30,3 x 65,6 cm )
Signed poster
16.93 x 22.05 in ( 43 x 56 cm )
