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Essay On Guerrilla Girls

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Essay On Guerrilla Girls
Guerrilla Girls’ are a group of women artists and art professionals who fight discrimination and expose sexism and racism in the art world. The Guerrilla Girls’ provide a serious yet humorous approach to feminism. The protest group wears gorilla masks to keep the focus on the real issues and not their personalities or personal identities. Our society grows up learning about centuries of artists, but are limited to white male masterpieces and movements. The Guerrilla Girls’ ask us to rethink the question “Why haven't’ there been more great women artists to why haven’t more women been considered great artists?” (The Guerrilla Girls 7) Most strikingly are the facts that iterate that less than 5% of the artists in the modern art section are women, …show more content…
The Guerrilla Girls mention it is rare for a museum to have many female artists on display, but (Re)discovering S(h)elves displays explicitly all female artists and their interpretations on identity. The Guerrilla Girls fight to expose females in the art world past and present an eliminate stereotyping of female artists or artists of color. Artists like Jan Shotwell and Stephanie Brunia, examine the Western art tradition made so popular by male artists over the centuries. (Re)discovering S(h)elves draws attention to female artists as a whole by providing a space that highlights all types of woman’s art.

Jan Shotwell, Big Red, 1975
Big Red reflects on the traditional Western female nude. At first glance how many people see the nude woman in red in the background? Most people notice the red bird then upon further inspection notice the nude female in red. Shotwell was drawing attention to tradition Western female nudes highlighting the objectification of women in art. Instead of the nude being the focal point your attention is drawn to the bird questioning the importance of the viewer looking at the woman or the bird shielding her.

Stephanie Brunia, Ophelia,

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