Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Feminist Art: Guerrilla Girls Poster

The Guerrilla Girls are feminist artists who use posters to inform people about women's, race, media, and political issues.

The Guerrilla Girls made a poster in 2005 called Do Women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? Text right below the title says, "Less than 3% of the artists in the Modern Art sections are women, but 83% of the nudes are female."The poster's subject is a nude woman with a gorilla head, holding a fan, and wearing bracelets. In front of a yellow orange background, she is reclining on a folded, wrinkled, purple blanket. She was inspired by French Neoclassical painter Ingres'
Grand Odalisque painting from 1814 at the Louvre museum in Paris.

As a fan of modern art, I find it ridiculous that "less than 3% of the artists in the Modern Art sections are women." Why can't there be a larger percentage of female artists in the Modern Art sections of the museum? Shouldn't the museum try to support female modern artists? Do they support male modern artists more? I hope that as an institution of learning they can promote the idea of gender equality among modern artists.

Why "do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?" Why is it that "83% of the nudes are female" at the museum? Why can't there be an equal number of male and female nudes at the museum?

It is sad for me to see that the percentage of female nudes is significantly larger than the percentage of female modern artists in the museum. I hope that in the future there will be more female modern artists and less female nudes in the Met.

1 comment:

Jenna said...

I saw this exhibit at the pompidou in paris and it was very powerful. I agree with your blog.