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Guerilla Girls In The 1970's

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During the late 1980’s and early 1990’s two groups emerged within the Houston art scene. On one side of the spectrum you had the Houston Gorilla Girls who based themselves off of the global movement of Guerilla Girls, which had started in New York City. These girls strutted around in gorilla suits, in order to protect their identities, and fought for the rights of not only women artists but artists of color as well. They took out “hits” on many popular art galleries and even museums around Houston that they felt did not do enough to represent female artists, drawing mass publicity and attention. They were revolutionaries in their approach to the art scene, they were not happy with the way that women were being represented as there were so few …show more content…

This feminist art movement paved the way for numerous different art styles to emerge and gave women a more prominent stance within the art world. However during the 1980’s there was another shift and art dealers began showcasing more male artists again in order to revive the commercial economy of art, which marginalized female artists. This caused a new wave of feminism in art, with the emergence of the Guerilla Girls in New York and then eventually the Houston Gorilla Girls. The HGG wanted to intimidate the art galleries around Houston into exhibiting more female artists. They wanted to make them uncomfortable and show them something they probably hadn’t considered, that people do care about the representation of women and that these women in Gorilla masks would not stop until they achieved that fair representation. As stated previously, the guerilla girls not only wore the gorilla masks for the protection of their identity but also to give a feeling of unity and keep the galleries aloof to their activities while they were trying to figure out who was behind the gorilla masks. They wanted to be a faceless organization that sought to not only represents their own interests but the interests of women artists and artists of color that were not being treated as respected members within the art community. They wanted to be representative of the collective ideals and spirit of women all over the world and not just as their individual personalities. They wanted to let the world know that there was a sever lack of female representation and there needed to be a collective movement to change this. They placed blame on the art community as a whole often showcasing signs that read, “You are responsible” in bright neon colors, as not to be

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