On October 6th, 2011 Hartwick College was privileged to have Guerrilla Girl, Jane Kaufman come and speak. Kaufman was an original member of the Guerilla Girls. Starting in 1985, the group was formed by a bunch of passionate women in the hopes of getting more women artists the recognition they deserved. During this time period there were very few women artists, and they strived for there to be more.
The Guerilla Girls took place in New York City. The group of about 15 would get together to come up with ideas for posters. These posters would express important messages using humor. Once everyone agreed on every word in the poster, they would be created and put up all over the city during the night. Two Guerilla Girl members would go out with a shopping cart, posters, and glue. One person would put up the posters as the other looked out for policemen. It was important they didn’t get caught, some of the things they put up they could have been sued for. Once the morning arrived, there were posters with these messages covering the whole city for everyone to see.
My favorite poster showed a traditional woman holding a fan with a gorilla mask on. The woman was nude and the poster said, “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?” This was the humor of the piece. However, they followed it up with a shocking fact. “Less than 3% of the artists in the Modern Art sections are women, but 83% of the nudes are female.” Combining factual information and humor, the Guerilla Girls created posters like these to inform people on the sexism of the art world. They really made people think, causing this issue to rise in museums such as the Met.
Jane Kaufman showed us a lot of the work the Guerilla Girls created. She would explain the posters and answer questions we had about them. After the Guerilla Girls work was shown, she showed us her individual artwork. This woman was extremely funny. She loves to show her sense of humor in her work. It was truly entertaining to be able to see her pieces and ask her questions about her life as a Guerilla Girl.
Going to this event really helped me understand and respect the Guerilla Girls as a group. I think it’s incredible what they were able to do. Remaining anonymous until just last year, this group really changed the art world for the better. Who knows where the art world would have been today without them. Maybe I wouldn’t be able to pursue my passion as an art major. They deserve a huge thank you for putting themselves out there for the future of art.
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