Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Guerrilla Girls Records
2008.M.14
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Guerrilla Girls records
Date (inclusive): 1979-2003
Number: 2008.M.14
Creator/Collector:
Guerrilla Girls (Group of
artists)
Physical Description:
96 Linear Feet
(96 boxes, 20 flat files, 3 elephant folios, 1 roll)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
Business Number: (310) 440-7390
Fax Number: (310) 440-7780
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: Guerrilla Girls records document the
activities of the feminist art group, comprising a complete set of posters, mass mailings,
form letters, and other graphic materials, along with internal group memoranda, letters from
fans, business correspondence, and audiovisual materials.
Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials
described in this inventory through the
catalog
record
for this collection. Click here for the
access
policy
.
Language: Collection material is in
English .
The Guerrilla Girls formed in 1985 as an anonymous group determined to fight sexism in the
art world. Their initial strategy was to put up protest posters during the night in the Soho
neighborhood of Manhattan. What residents saw in the morning were statistics printed in
black on white paper, and the numbers spoke for themselves: that only one woman had had a
solo exhibition in a New York Museum in the previous year; that fewer than 10% of artists
shown in top galleries were women; that art magazines devoted less than 25% of coverage to
women artists. Confronting the art world with its patent injustice, the posters caused a
sensation.
The Guerrilla Girls developed their expose over the next two decades, systematically
attacking the arbiters of taste in the art world, including gallerists, critics, curators,
collectors, editors, and even prominent male artists who failed to support their campaign.
To the stark presentation of fact they added wit, using, for example, the format of an
elementary school report card to grade and comment on the galleries' performance with regard
to women artists, or listing the disadvantages of being a woman artist as advantages. It was
frequently this mock reversal of values that was at the core of their effective humor, even
when they moved into the broader political arena to target the Bush-era censorship
campaigns, with messages such as, "Relax, Senator Helms, the art world
is your
kind of place."
The Guerrilla Girls have given lectures and performances dressed as gorillas to pursue the
pun on their name, conceal their identities, and emphasize the primal intelligence and
strength of their political position. Instead of using their given names, they took the
names of women artists from the past as pseudonyms. They have also curated two major
exhibitions. In 1985, their Palladium show exhibited women artists. In 1987, in protest
against the Whitney Biennial's selection of artwork, they curated a counter exhibition,
Guerrilla Girls Review the Whitney, in which they revealed the corporate
ties of the institution. Over the years, they have also produced mass mailings that attacked
reviewers or gallerists with more specificity than a poster allowed; books, including
Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls (1995) and
The Guerrilla Girls'
Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art
(1998); the journal
Hot
Flashes
(1990); and various toys, cards, banners, and other ephemera, often
derived from the poster concepts.
Open for use by qualified researchers except for Box 96 Redactions and the photographic
material in boxes 10 and 11 which are restricted and sealed.
Contact
Library Reproductions
and Permissions
.
Guerrilla Girls records, 1979-2003, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession
no. 2008.M.14.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2008m14
Acquired in 2008.
Initial processing by Vladimira Stefura in 2008. Further processing and cataloging by
Annette Leddy in 2009. Redaction and conservation by Jan Bender. Object conservation by
Albrecht Gumlich. Arrangement is based on the Guerrilla Girls' original filing system for
their poster projects. Every effort has been made to redact the names of individual artist
members of the group, unless they gave permission to reveal their names.
Guerrilla Girls' poster portfolio 2, 1991-1999, Call number: 2730-185.
99 serials and 54 monographs were separated to the library.
Scope and Content of Collection
Guerrilla Girls records document the activities of the feminist art group, comprising a
complete set of posters, mass mailings, form letters, and other graphic materials, showing
the evolution of their work and their notable expansion of focus from the art world to
George Bush-era politics to New York theater. Series I documents their notorious posters in
chronological order. Series II. Assorted graphic works, shows their assiduous pursuit of
justice through mass and individual mailings about and to various art world figures, along
with the private replies they often received. This series also provides a glimpse into their
collective compositional process, with drafts of posters and comments on them, along with
source material in the form of clippings and statistical reports. Series III concerns books
and serials they created.
Series IV. Photographs, V. Exhibitions, and VI. Lectures and Performances, document the
Guerrilla Girls' non-graphic activity, though the extensive list of venues is not complete.
Of particular interest is Series VIII. Administration files, which includes internal group
memoranda, revealing the sometimes emotional conflicts between members, and the challenges
of non-hierarchical collective self-management. Also included are letters from fans,
business correspondence that offers insight into donors and sponsors, and comprehensive
press clippings.
Arranged in ten series:
Series I. Poster projects, 1985-1995;
Series II.
Assorted graphic works, 1980-1999;
Series III.
Publications, 1986-1995;
Series IV.
Photographs, 1987-1997;
Series V.
Exhibitions, 1981-2003;
Series VI.
Lectures and Performances, 1985-2002;
Series VII.
Objects, undated;
Series VIII.
Administration files, 1985-2002;
Series IX.
Other groups and institutions, 1979-2003;
Series X.
Miscellaneous, 1985-2002.
Sex discrimination against women
Women artists
Women artists -- United States -- 20th century
Art dealers -- United States -- 20th century
Art critics -- United States -- 20th century
Photographic prints -- United States -- 20th century
Feminism in art
Feminism and art -- United States -- 20th century
Art museums -- Exhibitions -- United States
Women artists -- Archives
Posters -- United States -- 20th century
Sketches -- United States -- 20th century
Sound recordings -- United States -- 20th century
Videocassettes -- United States -- 20th century
Guerrilla Girls (Group of
artists)