Working for gender equality in the art world

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A revolution of women artists
By María V. R.
The Guerrilla Girls is a group of women artists whose goal is to combat sexism and racism in the art world. In their public protests they wear gorilla masks, using humor and irreverence to denounce the prejudices against gender and race. This movement took its first steps back in 1985 with a campaign of posters that directly attacked the museums, galleries and critics responsible for the exclusion of women and black people from exhibitions and publications. In those days only 5% of the collections of contemporary art had works by women artists.

Thirty years have passed since the first actions of the feminist guerrillas, and they have made some progress. The presence of female and minority artists in museums has improved but it is still under-represented. For example, during 2016 only 14% of the works exhibited in the museums of Barcelona were by women. In the famous Arco contemporary art fair in Madrid that figure dropped to just 4%. These numbers are significantly higher in other countries for both women and people of color, but more work needs to be done here in Spain… and the Guerilla Girls are leading the way.

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