Guerrilla Girls - Art Activists

Student’s Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Guerrilla Girls Introduction Guerrilla girls form a group of art activists in America which was formed to bring attention to women artists and artists of the color in creating awareness on and protecting of women rights (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2017). The group was formed in 1985 at the MoMA exhibition which was strengthened by exposing the domination of the white male in the establishment of the art in the United States. The guerrilla girls raised a campaign against discriminatory practices on Hollywood which limited the art efforts of the women in America. The group aimed to enhance the art consciousness in the world which revolutionize the role of women in the work of art. The group played a major role in condemning unfair treatment and inequality among women in different institutions in the United States. This paper provides an analysis of the role played by the guerrilla girls in protecting the position of the women artists in the Hollywood and reflecting how the group has impacted American and global women in the field of art. Museum of the Modern Art in New York City held a large exhibition in 1985 which focused on presenting an International Survey of Painting and Sculptures. The exhibition included only 13 out of 169 women artists which indicated a high level of gender disparity in the art field. The turn up on the even and the lower number of women artists that showed in the exhibition raised a lot of question on the gender equity in the art industry focusing on how women can be empowered to participate in the artwork especially at the global level. Women have played a minimal role in advancing global artist due to the dominance of the male in the filed which outdoes their counterparts’ women effort. The issue on less participation of the women in the art was associated with the increasing issue of discriminatory practices in Hollywood which limited the role of women. This, therefore, resulted in the formation of the Guerrilla Girls movement which aimed at addressing such practices to enhance participation and the role of women in the art field. Generally, the roles of women in American society, as well as the entire world, have been less effective over the years. For instance, few women are known to participate in public activities or leadership with most of the vacancies being dominated by men. For example, the Guerrilla Girls collective released a statistic in their new poster in February 2019 indicating that only 24 percent of the entire United State senators are women with the rest 76 percent being male. However, the percentage of women participating in the politics have indicated significant improvement for the last 20 years with the number of women participants increasing from 9 percent in 1999 to 25 percent in 2019 (Jacolbe, 2019). Political and leadership participation of female has therefore indicated some diversity with the major impact of gender sensitiveness and equity being experienced in the past 10 years. However, the rate of women participation in Hollywood has remained static with little effort noted on the improvement of the state. In 1985, only 4 percent of women were participating as the directors of Hollywood. Up to date, the figures have remained the same, indicating a little or no effort for women empowerment in the art industry. Even with the formation of the famous Guerilla Girls formed by a group of women activists who wore gorilla masks to hind their identities, the issue of gender inequality has not yet fully addressed. 4 percent of women participation is an insignificant figure compared to the rate at which the art industry is growing in the modern world. This raised a concern to women artists like the two main founders of the Guerrilla Girls movement Frida Kahlo and Kathe Kollwitz who communicated on the need of empowering women in the art industry. Communication to the Justo media, Kahlo and Kollwitz said that they discovered the potential of women in artwork and a lot of arts could be purchased from women. Women have a historic and contemporary effort and ability to fill the entire Museum of Modern Art (Brockes, 2018). Their concern was that women in the art industry never thought of any great investment that would improve their role and participation in global art, especially in Hollywood. Their information indicated that women artist still lag away behind in indicating their potential and abilities in enhancing the art industry. For this reason, the Guerrilla Girls movement focused on enhancing the ability of women through the collective bargaining of equal chances and opportunities in advancing their talents in art. Guerrilla Girls movement aimed at confronting gender inequalities in both economic and social aspects in the United States as well as across the world ((Ryzik, 2017). The group managed to add a superhero-esques flourish in the idea of feminist ensemble which was hardly new in the American society. The group took vows of anonymity to stand with their rights by adopting the names of the artist names trivialized by male-centric art history text (Jansen, 2016). Their insightful activities involved plastering of the New York City blocks in posters containing satirical, shocking, and beautiful gonzo PSAs which aimed at exposing prejudice among curators, collectors, and colleges. The groups attended different art industry functions to confront the stakeholders face to face over the issue of inequality and gender discrimination in the industry. Their rebel tactics involved wearing ape masks which were an ingenious nod for vigilant ethos expressing their affinity for gallows humor. Analysis of the Guerrilla Girls Movement Guerrilla Girls movement played a major role in bringing out a revolution in the art industry to enable the establishment of the solid role of women artists across the world. The movement used different strategies to express their message and feelings to the industry management, some of which were positive while others were negative. The group received different perceptions from the members of the public and the entire art industry in the United States and the world at large. Some people viewed this as an opportunity to enhance the role of women in the industry and embracing gender equity through the reduction of discrimination and gender disparities. However, other people ranged the tactics used as an unethical way of communicating especially when it involved the direct confrontation of the group management and leadership. Through this section, the paper analyzes different social perspective on the work done by the Guerrilla Girls movement in establishing gender equity in the art industry. The article on “Feminist art activists the Guerrilla Girls get first dedicated UK show” by Mark Brown indicates the positive moves by the group in scrutinizing gender equity in the art industry (Brown, 2018). Guerrilla Girls Movement played a major role in exposing gender inequalities and discrimination in the art world. The group wore anonymous masks in their demonstrations and presentations which appeared scaring but humorous and entertaining. They managed to secure their first dedicated show in the United Kingdom to entertain people as they pass their message on facilitating gender equity in the art industry. Through this show, the White Chapel Gallery commissioned the Guerrilla Girls group to scrutinize gender diversity and hundreds of European galleries enabling the group to create awareness on gender balance and equity to a larger population. Through the performance in the UK show, the Guerrilla Girls movement was permitted to survey over 400 European galleries. This enabled the group to monitor the effectiveness of the museum in reflecting the full diversity of art and art history. According to the director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London Iwona Blazwick, gender mainstreaming and equity in the art industry is a battle that still needs to be fought. “I was just at the Kunst museum in Basel where they have just rehung the entire collection from 1900 to the present, and I think there are five women. Sadly it is still an issue”, said Iwona ((Brown, 2018). The Whitechapel Gallery organization, therefore, commissioned the Guerrilla Girls movement to enhance their campaign on gender equity in the art world. Guerrilla Girls members assumed the names of the dead women artists as a pseudonym such as Kahlo and Georgia O'Keeffe who were art women legends. Due to their security as they demonstrated for gender equity and recognition in the industry, the members hide their identity in public by wearing gorilla masks...