It was simply a wall, completely blank except for a small painting of a poster plastered, angled, in the middle. I stopped, much more intrigued by this generally entirely blank wall than the impressionist and naturistic paints around me. Sometimes what isn’t there is much more interesting than what is. 

I looked closer at the poster. It said, simply, “Only 4 of the 42 artists in the Carnegie International are women.” And below that, in small print, almost completely unnoticeable, “A public service message from the Guerrilla Girls conscience of the art world.” 

I thought it was so cool – this blank wall, one sentence, and tiny message was the most enthralling piece of artwork in the entire room. 

The Guerilla Girls began in 1984 in response to the MoMA’s An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture exhibition which represented the most famous artists in the world. The exhibition consisted of only 13 women out of 169 artists. After beginning with physical protesting, the girls then switched to street art, and posted signs stating sexist facts. 

The Guerilla Girls brought up the consistent issue about extremely prominent male artists and too few female artists. I’m not an art person at all, but if someone were to ask me to name a famous artist, I would say, DaVinci, Van Gogh or Monet. The only female artist I can name is Frida Kahlo. And unlike the male artists I named, I can’t name any famous paintings by Frida Kahlo. Our past has been generally towards male over female success and power.

The Guerilla Girls don’t hide their underlying message. Rather, they state what should be obvious. They spread facts that nobody knows about, but bring up the question of the truth. Are really 76% of the 4% of women in the Modern Art Met Museum nudes? Maybe something should be done about that. What are the rest of the months if black history month is February and Women’s History Month is March? Obviously not Black History Month. Obviously not Women’s History Month. There’s only one of each of those. 

The Guerilla Girls elongated a new category of art: activism. Their posters inspired women across the country to recognize the present sexism in the United States. And I had never even heard of them, until I was entirely encapsulated by a generally blank wall and a poster.