Rising Up Against the Odds: Krasner, Schapiro, Spero, Holzer, Sherman, Goldin

See more Guerrilla Girls ephemera.

In honor of Women’s History Month, this week’s newsletter finds inspiration in the Guerrilla Girls’ groundbreaking poster campaign in the 1980s that revealed how under-represented women were in the art world at that time. We’ll turn our attention to our own Artists Page which includes listings for more than 260 artists active between the 1960s and the early 2000s. Let’s do the math. What percentage of women artists are featured on this key Gallery 98 page?

It’s not surprising that we also come up short since our inventory of exhibition cards and other art ephemera is rooted in the same gallery system that the Guerrilla Girls were critiquing. Yet changing attitudes and the inclusion of alternative spaces and smaller galleries (the Guerrilla Girls mostly counted larger galleries and museums) have altered the numbers a bit. Currently,  35% of the artists listed on our artist page are women.

Featured below are six women artists who, against the odds, have risen to the top of the art world. All the images come from art ephemera and multiples available from Gallery 98.

Lee Krasner

See more Lee Krasner ephemera.

Miriam Schapiro

See more Miriam Schapiro ephemera.

Nancy Spero

See more Nancy Spero ephemera.

Jenny Holzer

See more Jenny Holzer ephemera.

Marlene Dumas

See more Marlene Dumas ephemera.

Cindy Sherman

See more Cindy Sherman ephemera.

Nan Goldin

See more Nan Goldin ephemera.

See more work by women artists.