Arts Bombast: Guerrilla Girls
Guerrilla Girls were/are a group of anonymous radical artists and activists dedicated to fighting sexism and discrimination in the art world. Around ’85, they started printing cheap, humorous posters with sad-but-true facts about the appallingly low representation of women in NYC galleries and museums. The 100+ group of women would then get the word out by posting these highly politicized flyers on the streets. Some people took notice of the posters, but many people tore them down or defiled them. Such is the life of feminist renegades.
Guerrilla Girls were collaborative, organized, and they focused on the issue rather than their own personalities. One of my all-time favorite internet places, Gallery 98, has an online exhibition of the Guerrilla Girls right now. If you have several hundred dollars lying around, you can own an original copy of one of the posters, which would be pretty cool.
[Guerrilla Girls, How Many Women Had One-Person Exhibitions at NYC Museums Last Year?, 1985.]
[Guerrilla Girls, Do Women Have to be Naked To Get Into The Met. Museum, 1989.]
[Guerrilla Girls, What Do These Artists Have in Common?, 1984.]
[Guerrilla Girls, Dearest Art Collector, It Has Come to Our Attention…, 1986.]
[Guerrilla Girls, Guerrilla Girls’ Report Card, 1986.]
![[no title] 1985-90 by Guerrilla Girls null](https://ribbonaroundabomb.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/guerilla-girls-3.jpg)
[Guerrilla Girls, Women in America Earn 2/3 of What Men Do, 1985.]
[Guerilla Girls, Relax Senator Helms The Art World Is Your Kind of Place, 1989.]
More NYC feminist street art, why not?
Ribbon Around A Bomb 
I remember reading about this when I was young(er) and stupid(er). It’s weird that the art world is like this. Even a lot of books and films that are otherwise really good end up objectifying women. (This is on of the reasons why my least-favourite parts of novels are usually the bedroom scenes.) I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that this sort of thing happens, though.
The sad flower on the “Dearest Art Collector” poster made me laugh.