Guerilla Girls 'Do When Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met Museum' Print Available

Artist: Guerilla Girls
Title: Do When Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met Museum
Medium: Deckled Giclee Print
Size: 28 x 11 Inches
Edition: 50
Price: $175

The Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous feminist activist artist collective, founded in New York City in 1985 to fight sexism and racism within the art world. Originating as a response to the "An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, which featured only 13 women out of 165 artists, the group adopted gorilla masks to hide their identities, focusing on the message rather than the individual artists. They are from the United States, specifically beginning their activism in lower Manhattan, often using the names of deceased female artists like Frida Kahlo or Kathe Kollwitz as pseudonyms to maintain anonymity. While the members themselves are not publicly identified, they are known to be female artists and art professionals.

The group first started focusing on art activism in 1985, creating bold, black and white posters featuring text and data, which they wheat pasted throughout NYC to expose inequality, pay gaps, and underrepresentation of women and artists of color in prominent galleries and museums. Their education is diverse, with the group often referencing their background as artists and professionals, though they maintain anonymity to ensure the focus remains on the structural issues in the arts community.

Significant accomplishments include numerous worldwide campaigns, public appearances, and publications, including The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art. They have been featured in major retrospectives and have participated in exhibitions, such as at the Tate Modern in London, where their work is on display. In 2025, they were awarded the MO Kunstpreis 2025.

Famous pieces of art and posters by the Guerrilla Girls include the iconic 1989 work, "Do Women Have to Be Naked to Get Into the Met Museum?", which utilized a reproduction of Ingres’ painting, Grande Odalisque. Another significant piece is "Advantages to Being a Woman Artist" from 1988. Further, their poster "We Sell White Bread" was one of the first to tackle racial discrimination in art. They also produced "How to Enjoy the Battle of the Sexes" for The New Yorker in 1996 and "Anatomically Correct Oscars".