Guerrilla Girls, Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?, Poster, 1989
When the Guerrilla Girls began wheat-pasting posters on walls near galleries and museums in downtown NY in the mid-1980s, they didn’t know what effect these posters would have on the art world nor exactly how long that effect would last. The purpose of their posters was to foster social change; to lay bare the gender and race inequality long endemic to the art world. Using statistics and sarcastic humor, the posters quickly raised both eyebrows and consciousness. They also started a slow process of incremental change that is still accelerating today.
While it was not their original intention, Guerrilla Girls posters are now also considered art works and are found in the collections of many prominent museums. Here they are prized as prime examples of the downtown art scene of the 1980s when artists were more interested in politics than in aesthetics.
Five years ago a Gallery 98 online exhibition of Guerrilla Girls posters quickly sold out. We are pleased that we have recently acquired more of these vintage posters, including some that are among the Guerrilla Girls’ greatest hits. You can view these new acquisitions here.
