![]() ![]() It afforded anonymity for working artists who had every reason to believe the institutions would launch counter attacks on their professional reputations. While adopting masks and pseudonyms like Frida Kahlo, Gertrude Stein, and Käthe Kollwitz heightened the theatricality of their public appearances, it also served a practical purpose.As New York Times art critic Roberta Smith has written, they took "feminist theory, gave it a populist twist and some Madison Avenue pizazz and set it loose in the streets." In admitting women only, and exclusively by invitation, the group mirrored power circles in the male-dominated art world. The Guerrilla Girls made feminism seem like a glamorous club one could join.Coopting this and other elements of humor into their communicative strategy helped dispel the notion that feminists have no sense of humor. Imitating advertising, and appealing to the eye of the educated mass consumer, they engaged a much broader audience. The Guerrilla Girls' marketing tactics were more sophisticated than that of any previous feminist campaign.They'll say, 'Why don't we clean this place up?' In the end, we encourage people to send their extra estrogen pills to Karl Rove he needs a little more estrogen." In a 2012 interview they revealed, "We've been working on a weapon, an estrogen bomb.If you drop it, the men will drop their guns and start hugging each other. They have collaborated with institutions that once shunned them, including the Tate Modern and MoMA, and yet their tactics remain as radical as ever. As their reputation has grown, they have encompassed targets beyond the art sphere, like Hollywood, right wing politicians, and same-sex marriage. Referring to themselves as "the conscience of the art world," wherever discrimination lurks, the Guerrilla Girls are likely to strike again. The group is still going strong, reminding the art world that it still has a long way to go. ![]() Their unorthodox tactics were instrumental in making progress. ![]() In other words, they worked." In addition to posters (now highly-valued works of art), billboards, performances, protests, lectures, installations, and limited-edition prints make up the Guerrilla Girls' varied oeuvre. Their posters, in the words of one critic "were rude they named names and they printed statistics. Armed with wheat paste and posters, the Guerrilla Girls, as they called themselves, set out to shame the art world for its underrepresentation of women artists. In 1985, a group of vigilantes wearing gorilla masks took to the streets. ![]()
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