review
Get Vocal : Lessons from a Guerrilla Girl by Halee Sommer
“ Why don ’ t we begin the evening with one big collective scream ?”
Moments later , the Carleton Auditorium at the University of Florida erupted into a jarring choir of the cries of those feeling the heaviness of our social and political climate . I would be lying if I said the reverberation of my scream beating against others didn ’ t feel amazing ; it was just the release I needed . The question was prompted by Guerrilla Girl Frida Kahlo , who visited UF on February 14 . While couples across the globe were celebrating Valentine ’ s Day , hundreds of people from the Gainesville community gathered for the best date of all : a conversation with a Guerrilla Girl .
It ’ s been 30 years since the infamous gorilla mask-wearing , social-activist feminist group called the Guerrilla Girls tilted the art world on its axis . In 1989 , they brought to light the shocking statistic that , “ Less than 5 % of the artists in the Modern Art sections are women , but 85 % of
55 the nudes are female ” within the walls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , and prompted the question , “ Do Women Have to be Naked to Get in the Met Museum ?”
The Guerrilla Girls are superhero vigilantes of the art world . They act anonymously , assuming the names of dead women artists and utilizing a hybrid of fact-driven data and humor to demonstrate the obvious underrepresentation of women artists and artists of color within the scholarship and exhibition of art history . In some respects , things have gotten better ; to cite one specifi c example , the optimistic feminist inside me immediately applauds the appointment of Christine Macel as curator of the 57th Venice Biennale as a hallmark win for the progressive advancement of the art world . Although slight glimmers of equal representation are becoming more present , overall , there is still much work to be done . In 2012 , the Guerrilla Girls revisited their original question , “ Do Women Have to Get Naked to be in the Met Museum ?” only to fi nd that less than 4 % of the artists in the museum were women , but 76 % of the nudes were female . Are these numbers discouraging ? Yes , absolutely . But the fi ght is far from over .
More than three decades later , the Guerrilla Girls are still fi ghting for the “ radical ” notion that women artists and artists of color are just as signifi cant , if not more so , than their white comrades . Dubbing themselves the , “ Conscience of the Art World ,” they relentless protest the inequities that exist within museums and the art market .
“ Art and art history should look like who we are ,” said Kahlo , delving into the ways our largest public art museums — meaning cultural nonprofi ts that receive
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