by Hayward Hawks Marcus
USA

Guerrilla Girls: Protesting the Art World With a Primate Punch—Part I

So, after just a little investigation, it seems it’s still mostly a white-man’s art world. Ever the optimist, I wanted to leave with a vision of how this sorry state might change. I ask Guerrilla Girl Frida Kahlo if she thinks the internet might help open some doors for underrepresented artists.

“I certainly hope so,” she replies. “For example, the major art magazines have become trade journals filled with advertising. You can’t tell the adverts from the articles––you can’t even find the articles––and you wonder, doesn’t that compromise the discourse? Whereas the online art mags aren’t that dependent on advertising––I hope. [The internet] is quicker, faster, cheaper and it travels around the world, so let’s hope that it would change it. The internet does break down this idea that art is this single object that can only exist in one place at one time, and that it’s currency that can be traded only among wealthy people. The internet is really redefining media in general. I was wondering how we could create a counter-culture with media the way it was, all being controlled by a small group of people all wanting the same market share. I don’t know if it will change the art world, but I’m hopeful it will create an alternative.”

by Hayward Hawks Marcus
USA

Who could have predicted that I would one day interview artist Frida Kahlo? Not via Ouija board, mind you, but by telephone. And while I didn’t ask, I doubt she was wearing her gorilla mask.

Before anyone asks, this Frida Kahlo is a founding member of the Guerilla Girls, New York City’s female, gorilla-masked, artist avengers, who lead a perpetual battle for parity within the world of High Art.

Forming in 1985 to protest an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, where the number of male to female artists ran 148 to 17, the Guerrilla Girls referred to themselves as “The Conscience of the Art World.” With pseudonyms of deceased female artists, they cloaked their identities inside gorilla masks to keep the public focused on their actions, not their personalities, to protect their own art careers, and, I suppose, to give their appearance the same humorous slant as their work.