Guerrilla Girls Giving Talk About Injustices In The Art World At Fairfield University

At a gallery talk on Tuesday, Sept. 23, at Fairfield University’s Walsh Art Gallery, an artist will take the podium wearing a gorilla mask. She calls herself “Frida Kahlo.”

Some might wonder what this masquerade is all about. But those who have followed the careers of the Guerrilla Girls, a collective of feminist “masked avengers” who have shaken their fists at the art establishment since 1985, will be delighted that “Frida” and her tribe are still hammering away at art-world misogyny and other injustices.

“They came on the scene with such a splash. They grabbed the art world by storm. They were saying what everyone else was afraid to say, about the exclusivity of the art world to male artists and white artists mostly,” said Neysa Page-Lieberman. “Now they’re going on 29 years of complaining. They’re professional creative complainers. They never run out of things to complain about. … Sadly, they are always in demand.”

Page-Lieberman is director and curator of the department of exhibitions, performance and student spaces at Columbia College Chicago, and curator of “Not Ready to Make Nice: Guerrilla Girls in the Art World and Beyond,” which will be at the Walsh until Nov. 15.

The Guerrilla Girls were founded in New York City. The anonymous group of women first gained fame by hanging up posters to bring attention to the scarcity of female and non-white artists in major galleries and museums in the city. Since then they have branched out to widen their criticism to other cities and other art forms and cultural institutions.

The Walsh show focuses on work the group has done since 2000. The fun exhibit of large- and small-scale protest posters features criticisms of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Congress, the Oscars, the film industry in general, and Italian, Irish and Turkish women-in-art issues.

To this day, the Guerrilla Girls have been anonymous. Kahlo, reached by phone, said that after 29 years, there is nothing to gain by revealing who they are. “There would be no heroic act to outing us anymore. A lot of people don’t want to know who we are. They just want us to keep working,” Kahlo said. “There is such an American tradition of masked avengers and anonymous street speech. We fit in with that.

“We were anonymous at first in a self-serving way. We wanted to protect ourselves and our careers,” she said. “We soon realized a deeper and more useful meaning to the anonymity, in that we represent a lot of people.”

Kahlo and “Kathe Kollwitz” are the only two founding members of the group who are still active. She said when they first started out, they wanted to put everyone in the art world on the spot.

“There was a situation of discrimination and everyone said it started somewhere else. Artists say it’s the collectors. Collectors say it’s the artists and the galleries. Galleries say it’s the collectors,” she said. “We went after every sector of the art world. They were all responsible for this situation.”

All members of the Guerrilla Girls work in the art world in some capacity, and were motivated by anger. “We wanted to do something positive with our anger rather than brooding,” she said. “We put up a few posters not expecting anything to happen, and it was a sensation.”

Today, they find themselves in the ironic position of doing work at the request of art-world institutions they are accustomed to criticizing. “It’s interesting and a challenge to keep our critical edge,” she said.

The Walsh show has plenty of edge. One movie poster touting a fictional film “The Birth of Feminism” features Pamela Anderson as Gloria Steinem, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Bella Abzug and Halle Berry as Flo Kennedy. All the women are scantily clad. The movie was written, directed and produced by men.

Another shows a pale, pudgy, hairy “Anatomically Correct Oscar,” reflecting the overwhelmingly white male recipients of the coveted prize.

One banner asks “Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?” and points out that 4 percent of artists in the modern art section of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are women, but 76 percent of the painted nudes are women.

One corner of the gallery is devoted to fan mail and hate mail the women have received over the years.

Page-Lieberman said that the anonymity, in addition to being a protective act, gives the Guerrilla Girls their power.

“People were afraid of them. Nobody knew. A Guerrilla Girl might be sitting on that train next to you. They could be someone working with you,” she said. “They were spies looking around to reveal secrets.”

“NOT READY TO MAKE NICE: GUERRILLA GIRLS IN THE ART WORLD AND BEYOND” will be at the Walsh Art Gallery, at the Quick Center for the Arts at Fairfield University, 1073 North Benson Road in Fairfield, until Nov. 15. On Tuesday, Sept. 23, “Frida Kahlo” will speak at 5 p.m. www.fairfield.edu/walshgallery.