Guerrilla girls

In 1984, the Museum of Modern Art opened the An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture exhibition. It was represented by 169 artists, among whom there were only 13 women. Almost all European and American artists were white. On June 14 of the same year, a group of artists went to the museum building with a protest rally. ^[2] This may be considered the first public appearance of Guerrilla Girls.

In April 1985, they published two black and white posters that criticized galleries, museums, and critics themselves for their lack of attention to artists. These posters taped the streets of Soho and East Village in New York, that is, in the vicinity where many artists lived and exhibited their works. ^[3] At the end of 1985, the Guerrilla Girls published a new poster that reported the following:

“On October 17, Palladium will apologize to female artists”

The famous dance club “Palladium”, which posted the work of only male artists, in collaboration with Guerrilla Girls issues invitations to the show, which was “to dispel the following performances forever:

1) Biology is fate, 2) there are no great artists, 3) these are emotional men, and 4) only men can be exhibited at the Palladium ^[4]

For this exhibition, the group selected 150 works by 85 artists. ^[5] After that, the group voted to no longer oversee the exhibitions, as some of the main participants of the Guerrilla Girls opposed having to again choose between artists instead of an open competition. ^[3]

In April and May 1986, Guerrilla Girls organized two discussion panels: Hidden Agender: An Evening with Critics and Passing the Bucks: An Evening with Art Dealers. ^[6]

In the spring of 1987, they hosted the Guerrilla Girls Review the Whitney exhibition at The Clocktower, a nonprofit gallery, during the Whitney Museum of American Art biennale. This exhibition is considered one of their most significant events, which was actively covered in the press. Their “Banana Report” presented statistics on the inclusion of women and minorities in the artistic space of the Biennale between 1973 and 1987 and showed a clear exclusive trend. ^[7] In the first two years of activity, the group was able to draw attention to the power vested in museums, galleries, magazines, critics and collectors. As a result, already at the Biennale of the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1993, about half of the works presented belonged to artists ^[8] .

In 1989, they published their most famous poster, “Do Women Have to Be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum? ” , Which in 1991 is supplemented by a poster “ These Are the Most Bigoted Galleries in New York ” with statistics presented in galleries of women and blacks.

In June 1992, the Guerrilla Girls teamed up with WAC (Women's Action Coalition) to protest together at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum, which planned to mark the opening of the new gallery with an exhibition of four or five white male artists. The action took place after months of letters of calls and faxes demanding that artists and painters ^{[9] [3]} be included in the exhibition of “non-white, non-Europeans and non-men”.

Since the 1990s, the situation began to change for the better, and the group began to develop the theme of “symbolic, purely formal” changes that indicate ongoing discrimination. This was dedicated to their poster, “Top Ten Signs That You're an Art World Token”.

Today, Guerrilla Girls continues to work as an anonymous group with a changing composition. In 2001, they split into three branches: Guerrilla Girls, Inc., Guerrilla Girls Broad Band and the theater tour group Guerrilla Girls On Tour !.

The group systematically updated the site .

To participate in the New York Group, an invitation from current or former members is required, as well as mandatory involvement in the world of contemporary art. A mentor program has been formed within the group, based on which an experienced “partisan” is assigned to a new member. ^[10]

The group uses the names of artists of the past as pseudonyms. The names Kete Kolwitz , Alma Thomas, Rosalba Carriere , Frida Kahlo Julia de Burgos , Hannah Hyokh are used . ^[10]

In 1995, they released their first book: Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls, and in 1998, The Guerrilla Girls Bedside Companion to History of Western Art. Already in 2003, Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers were released, followed by the 2004 parody of The Guerrilla Girl's Museum Activity Book. The Hysterical Herstory Of Hysteria And How It Was Cured From Ancient Times Until Now comes in a special pdf format in 2009 . ^[eleven]