Guerrilla Girls

Guerrilla Girls
Name	Guerrilla Girls
Background	group_or_band
Origin	New York City, United States
Years active	1985–present
Genre	Activist art, Feminist art, Political art
Associated acts	ACT UP, The Women’s Art Registry

Guerrilla Girls The Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous collective of feminist artists and activists founded in 1985 in New York City to challenge sexism and racism in the art world and cultural institutions. They employ public interventions, poster campaigns, billboards, public performances, and artworks that combine statistics, humor, and graphic design to critique museums, galleries, and corporate sponsorship. Known for their trademark gorilla masks and pseudonymous identities drawn from historical women, they have engaged with institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

History

The group emerged during a period of activism overlapping with campaigns by ACT UP, protests at the Whitney Biennial, and the aftermath of debates at the National Endowment for the Arts in the 1980s. Founders included artists who had been involved with collectives and organizations such as Hannah Wilke-influenced circles, the Women Artists in Revolution movement, and members formerly associated with Madonna-era cultural critique. Early actions targeted exhibitions at institutions like the Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, and the New Museum, and intersected with debates in publications such as Artforum and October (journal). The collective’s tactics drew on the histories of Dada, Situationist International, and Fluxus while responding to controversies involving figures like Julian Schnabel and debates around funding from corporations including Halliburton and BP.

Membership and Identity Practices

Members adopt the names of deceased women artists, writers, performers, and activists such as Frida Kahlo, Georgia O'Keeffe, Katherine Hepburn, and Edith Wharton as pseudonyms to foreground historical erasure. The use of gorilla masks references both anonymity and the theatricality of groups like The Residents and performance traditions associated with Yayoi Kusama and Marina Abramović. Organizationally, the group has included participants with links to institutions like School of Visual Arts, Columbia University, Cooper Union, and Pratt Institute. Decision-making has echoed consensus models used by collectives such as The Young Lords and ACT UP, while their legal and financial structure has at times engaged with nonprofit frameworks similar to National Organization for Women and Creative Time partnerships.

Activism and Major Projects

Major campaigns include posters and billboards criticizing representation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, statistical exposés of gender imbalances at the Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern, and public interventions during events like the Venice Biennale and the Armory Show. Notable projects: the 1989 poster series "Do Women Have to Be Naked To Get Into the Met?" targeted collections practices at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and referenced models from Renaissance and Baroque painting traditions. Later campaigns critiqued corporate sponsorship similar to disputes involving Shell and ExxonMobil, and produced books and exhibitions held at venues such as The Andy Warhol Museum and The Brooklyn Museum. Collaborations and disputes connected them with figures and institutions such as Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, Cindy Sherman, and galleries like Gagosian and David Zwirner.

Artistic Style and Methods

Their visual language fuses graphic design traditions from schools like Bauhaus and Swiss Style with pop art strategies employed by Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Text-and-image posters use bold typography, photomontage referencing archives such as The New York Public Library and images reminiscent of works by Édouard Manet and Diego Rivera. Performance pieces and street posters recall the agitprop of Soviet Montage aesthetics and the billboard interventions of Barbara Kruger. Methods include statistical research drawn from exhibition catalogues and institutional reports from organizations such as the American Alliance of Museums and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, use of screenprinting techniques taught at Cooper Union and DIY distribution modeled on punk-era zines associated with Black Flag and Dischord Records.

Reception and Criticism

The collective received praise from critics at outlets like The New York Times, The Guardian, and Artforum for exposing disparities at major institutions including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the National Gallery. They faced criticism from curators at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and dealers connected to Pace Gallery for their confrontational tactics. Some scholars in journals such as October (journal) and Art Journal debated their statistical methods and rhetorical style, comparing them to feminist theorists like Judith Butler, bell hooks, Laura Mulvey, and policy critiques associated with Martha Rosler. Legal concerns have arisen in contexts similar to disputes involving Shepard Fairey over image appropriation.

Legacy and Influence

Their impact appears in subsequent waves of cultural activism—informing campaigns by groups such as Not My Boss, #MeToo movement, and activist art orientations practiced by collectives like Theaster Gates-adjacent community projects and the tactics of Forensic Architecture. Museums including the Tate Britain, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago have altered acquisition and exhibition policies following public pressure resembling Guerrilla Girls campaigns. Influence is evident in artists and curators such as Kara Walker, Theaster Gates, Doris Salcedo, Ai Weiwei, and initiatives at institutions like SFMOMA, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and National Portrait Gallery that now foreground diversity metrics and programming initiatives once championed by the collective.

Category:Feminist artists Category:American artist groups and collectives