Guerrilla Girls, “Dearest Art Collector”

0:06Dr. Beth Harris: We're at the Getty Research Institute looking at probably one of the most famous works by the Guerrilla Girls, Dearest Art Collector. What's really special about being here at the GRI is that we have the archive. We have these documents that help us to understand the process of this community of artists. Dr. Zanna Gilbert: The poster reads, "Dearest Art Collector, it's come to our attention that your collection, like most, does not contain enough art by women. We know that you feel terrible about this and will rectify the situation immediately. All our love, Guerrilla Girls." So this was made in 1986. So it makes it one of the earliest posters by the Guerrilla Girls, who formed in

0:471985 in New York City. And they were formed out of a frustration with the way that feminist protests hadn't had the effect that they should have had. And they wanted to try new tactics. And their posters used statistics, very simple messages and humor to get at the issues.

1:07Dr. Beth Harris: It starts ironically, "Dearest Art Collector." We know that they don't feel anything endearing about the art collector that they're writing to. The pink paper, the little flower at the top with the sad face, so sort of leaning in to ideas of femininity, ideas of how women artists are not serious.

1:30Dr. Zanna Gilbert: Up until this point, all of their posters had been black and white, Futura bold, very direct, very simple. And this one departs from that method. What we found in the archive was what we think is probably the prototype of the Dearest Art Collector letter. It has whiteout, where it says "Art Collector." So they were deliberating on who this was going to be addressed to. They were interested in addressing all different aspects of the art world, so it could have also been addressed Dear Art Critic, Dear Museum Curator, Dear Male Artist. The Dear Art Collector poster was done in 1986. But then in 1987, the Guerrilla Girls did an exhibition at The Clocktower, and they were reviewing the Whitney Biennial,

2:16which is one of the most important events of the art world. And it was notoriously bad for lack of inclusion of women and artists of color. So what they decided to do was make the Dearest Art Collector letter very specific and address it to the chair of the Board of Trustees, who at that time was Alfred Taubman. And in the letter, they drew attention to conflicts of interest and his business interests in his role at the Whitney Museum. Dr. Zanna Gilbert: So in this case, they changed the format of the letter. They made it really big.

2:47They made it into installation art in a way. And then in later years, they have done more of these projects. So in 2015, they made a new one that's called Dear Billionaire Art Collector. And they worked with an organization called the Illuminators to project this ransom note style letter that said Dear Billionaire Art Collector onto the side of the Whitney Museum. But it's also a poster.

3:15So there are many different iterations of the Dearest Art Collector letter. Dr. Beth Harris: Blending that private letter with these ironic, sarcastic posters that are out there in the public sphere. Dr. Zanna Gilbert: The mail system traverses both the public and the private realm. And that's what's unique and interesting about their use of it, because they can apply in these different contexts the direct address of a curator or a critic, and they also can show it as an open letter.

3:46We have a postcard that was addressed to a curator at the Museum of Modern Art called Margit Rowell. And it's another example of writing specifically to a person. So in this case, they objected that the exhibition "Objects of Desire: The Modern Still Life, " only had four women included out of 71 artists. And they take one of the objects that was included by Meret Oppenheim, which is her famous furry teacup and spoon with Guerrilla Girls heads inside the teacup.

4:20Dr. Zanna Gilbert: And they suggest that they rename the show "The Objects of MOMA's Desire are Still White Males." And then they sign off, "Lotsa luck, Guerrilla Girls" Another thing to mention about the posters is that they had this P.O. Box and that invited a real flood of fan mail, people who were just interested in getting a poster for their wall or for their class. Dr. Beth Harris: I can imagine this pent up anger and then seeing these posters and wanting to join. Dr. Zanna Gilbert: What they landed on is that they suggested that everyone can do something, and that makes you an honoree Guerrilla Girls. Dr. Beth Harris: I just wanna go back to the poster itself in the last line, which really strikes

5:06me in a tragic and also very funny way. "We know that you feel terrible about this and will rectify the situation immediately." And of course, here we are 40 years later and we know that there's still so much to be done in order for there to be real equity in the art world. Dr. Zanna Gilbert: I think it's fair to say that they did have a huge impact on the art world.

5:28And there are cases of curators who, when they were younger, learning about the Guerrilla Girls' work, and then they set about the rest of their careers trying to rectify things. Of course there are a lot of people doing this work, but there's a lot still to be done.