Heather Minette Schutmaat

20 April 2016

The Guerrilla Girls

In my first research post I explored the nature and origins of the practice of guerrilla theater, which is an unexpected theatrical performance in a public space as a means of spreading awareness, protesting, and recruiting masses to join social and political movements, and in many ways implements tactics similar to those of guerrilla warfare. In my research on the subject, I found that there are still numerous guerrilla theater groups practicing today, including El Teatro Campesino, which is the theater group that played a significant role in the Delano Grape Strike in the 1960s, and The San Francisco Mime Troupe, which is the theater group whose founder first adapted the term “guerrilla” from war to theater. Among the many long-established as well as contemporary guerrilla theater groups that I looked into, the one that I found most interesting and felt compelled to further research is the Guerrilla Girls—an anonymous group of feminist activists who use guerrilla tactics, art, and theater to protest and combat sexism and racism in the art world.

As the Encyclopedia Britannica’s entry on the Guerrilla Girls states, the group formed in 1984 when The Museum of Modern Art in New York City “mounted a large exhibit titled ‘An International Survey of Painting and Sculpture,’ in which only 13 women out of a total of 169 artists were included.” In an interview with Fringe magazine, the Guerrilla Girls claimed that a comment by the show’s curator also highlighted the gendered bias of the exhibition: "Kynaston McShine gave interviews saying that any artist who wasn’t in the show should rethink ‘his’ career." In reaction to this disparity and the gendered bias of the exhibit, seven women who are artists and art professionals came together to protest the exhibit in front of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and thus the Guerrilla Girls were born. This protest, however, had little effect, so the founding seven women continued to recruit more female artists, build their activist group, and carry out their mission through street performance and guerrilla art.

The term guerrilla, adapted from war to the performance of the group certainly fits, as the Guerrilla Girls implement “in benign form some guerrilla tactics: strictly anonymous membership, undisclosed numbers, surprise tactics, and public service ‘actions’ played out in the streets in gorilla drag” (Withers 285). On the Guerrilla Girl’s website, the group explains the gorilla masks are for the purpose of remaining anonymous: “Our anonymity keeps the focus on the issues, and away from who we might be. We wear gorilla masks in public and use facts, humor and outrageous visuals to expose gender and ethnic bias as well as corruption in politics, art, film, and pop culture.” Together with wearing masks, the Guerrilla Girls use pseudonyms instead of their real names: “Guerrilla Girls’ names are pseudonyms generally based on dead female artists. Members go by names such as Kathe Kollwitz, Alma Thomas, Rosalba Carriera, Frida Kahlo, Julia de Burgos, and Hannah Höch” in order to remain anonymous as well as to remember and honor female artists (Wikipedia, Guerrilla Girls).

In addition to street performances and demonstrations, the Guerrilla Girls also use guerrilla art to expose the sexism of the art world. Guerrilla art, also referred to as street art or protest art, is “a method of art making where artists leave anonymous art pieces in public places. It is often an installation in an unauthorized location. It is a way for artists to express their views and opinions to a large audience in an anonymous way” (Wikidot, Guerrilla Art). Shortly after the group formed, the Guerrilla Girls embarked upon a “postering campaign throughout New York City, particularly in the SoHo and East Village neighborhoods” to raise awareness of the sexism of the art world and to address feminist issues, which proved incredibly effective (Wikipedia, Guerrilla Girls). In the YouTube video, “The Guerrilla Girls at the Feminist Future Symposium” two Guerrilla Girls, under the pseudonyms Frida Kahlo and Kathe Kollwitz, state that they started their movement by sneaking around New York City in the middle of the night and putting up posters with questions and information such as “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female.” Once the group became established and widely recognized, they expanded their focus and began addressing not only sexism, but also racism in the art world. For example, one of their most famous posters asks, “When racism and sexism are no longer fashionable, what will your art collection be worth?”

The Guerrilla Girls’ postering campaign quickly gained popularity, and over the years, the activist group’s art, performances, and mission have earned substantial recognition. Their messages have been heard both nationally and internationally, and their group has contributed significantly to the feminist art movement in the United States. For example, the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ website states that now, 27 women are represented in the current edition of H.W. Janson’s survey, History of Art, which is up from zero in the 1980s. There is still certainly progress to be made, as the National Museum of Women in the Arts also notes that “though women earn half of the MFAs granted in the US, only a quarter of solo exhibitions in New York galleries feature women” and “although 51% of visual artists today are women, only 28% of museum solo exhibitions spotlighted women in eight selected museums.” Thus, the Guerrilla Girls continue to combat discrimination in the art world and their group has grown to such an extent that in 2001 they split into three groups, Guerrilla Girls, Inc., Guerrilla Girls Broad Band, and a touring theater group, Guerrilla Girls On Tour.

As the Wikipedia entry states, “Guerrilla Girls On Tour is an anonymous touring theatre company whose mission is to develop activist plays, performance art and street theatre addressing feminism and women’s history.” The theater company currently performs four different plays: Feminists are Funny, Silence is Violence, The History of Women in Theatre: Condensed, and If You Can Stand the Heat: History of Women and Food. Feminists are Funny includes an overview of the Guerrilla Girl’s street theater actions and “addresses the lack of parity for women in global theater.” Silence is Violence “includes a 30-minute section on up-to-date statistics and strategies for combating violence against women, …dramatizes a series of date rape situations” and provides the audience with “information on how to set boundaries and avoid potentially dangerous situations.” The History of Women in Theatre: Condensed “is the recovered ‘herstory’ of women in world theatre in 90 minutes revealing the work of some of the most prolific yet unknown women of the modern theatre.” If You Can Stand the Heat: History of Women and Food “explores women’s relationship to food” and addresses the issue of “female anxiety/obsession of body image” (Wikipedia, Guerrilla Girls on Tour). In short, Guerrilla Girls on Tour uses theatrical performances to address feminist issues, the position of women throughout the history of art as well as their current positions, and to combat sexism in the art world and beyond.

Although the Guerrilla Girls on Tour theater group doesn’t quite fit the definition of other guerrilla theater groups because their performances are booked (unlike their previous street performances in their earlier days as Guerrilla Girls) and therefore aren’t surprise performances in a public space to an unsuspecting audience, they still implement many tactics similar to guerrilla theater performers. For example, in my first research post I explained that in guerrilla theater, the actors’ tools are their audience and the objective is for the actors to get a particular message across by acting out scenarios of injustice, getting their audience to interact with them, and to sympathize with their situations. Guerrilla Girls on Tour have the same approach, as all of their shows are interactive, improvisational, and rely on the audience to engage. Most importantly, like other guerrilla theater groups, Guerrilla Girls on Tour’s fundamental goal is raising awareness and bringing about social and political change.

In my research on the Guerrilla Girls, I not only learned about the history, nature, and mission of the feminist activist group, and overall, what a determined, powerful, and resilient group of women they are, but I also became more aware of the position of female artists throughout art history and the discrimination and inequality that they continue to face. Perhaps most importantly, I learned much about the progress that women have made in the world of art by speaking out against sexism through art and performance, and demanding change, which should certainly be celebrated, as The Museum of Modern Art in New York City—the institution that first sparked their outrage and inspired the Guerrilla Girls to form and take action—now honors the Guerrilla Girls with several of their posters on permanent display.  

Works Cited

Withers, Josephine. “The Guerrilla Girls.” Feminist Studies 14.2 (1988): 284-300. JSTOR.

Web Links

http://www.nmwa.org/advocate/get-facts

http://sundresspublications.com/fringe/lit/features/an-interview-with-the-guerrilla-girls/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHVBZh5HBgc&list=PLF641879D46C443A1

http://www.britannica.com/topic/Guerrilla-Girls

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_Girls

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_Girls_On_Tour

http://www.guerrillagirls.com/

http://guerrillagirlsontour.com/

http://guerilla-art.wikidot.com/what-is-guerilla-art