The Guerrilla Girls are well-known for their presence at art exhibits or art museums who do not feature any female artists. They protest that fact by wearing guerrilla masks and standing outside museums or art galleries to bring to people's attention that there are woman artists who are important and whose work is just as important and relevant to people's lives as men artists whose work most museums show. In the above picture called The Advantages of being a Woman Artist,they playfully and with a kind of humor, tell all of the "advantages" of being a woman artist that are very much sarcastic to the woman who really takes the time to look and to think about them.
This is a picture of one of their posters that is talking about how absurd it is that women are used often in the arts for the beauty of their bodies, but are forgotten about after that. There were and are very few women artists who are featured in the more famous museums. This is ridiculous getting the facts that so many women are used as models for male painters and male artists, but when female artists paint their own pictures or use male models in their works, it is not seen kindly by public and by critics.
This is a link to the Guerrilla Girls website that talks about their tours and events that are upcoming.
I learned that they not only wear guerrilla masks to hide their identity, but they also take on the names of dead woman artists and such to really emphasize the discrimination and racism that has been the norm and continues to be more normal than not in today's society, especially in the arts.
This is Aphra Behn who was the first professional English author who later became a spy in the Dutch Wars. She became known and respected for her ability and courage not to be under the thumb of any man and not to be bothered by the fact that she was a woman and didn't let that stop her from becoming something that she wanted to be and doing with her life what she wanted to do with it.
This is Coco Chanel, a very famous designer even today who is part of the Guerrilla Girls' inspiration for their cause. Coco Chanel wasn't wealthy enough to buy trendy clothing in her time, like many women who were not married, so she decided to make her own and has since become a wealthy designer. She used sport jackets and ties of men during her time to make her own clothing and to design women's clothing that she made.
We all know Audrey Hepburn as an actress in some of our parents' favorite movies like Breakfast at Tiffany's and Wait Until Dark. But few of us know that she faced many hardships throughout her life that she had to overcome to become this famous and inspirational person who has made such an imact in the lives of he Guerrilla Girls and helped to give them material for their tours that help to inspire other girls to become all that they can and not let being a woman keep them from pushing through the discrimination and being a successful person all by themselves.
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