Project 2: The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist

     This poster created by the Guerrilla Girls uses a list to highlight how women are excluded from art history lessons, textbooks, museum collections, and more institutions in the field of art. Their 1988 poster “The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist” lists thirteen “advantages” that women have by choosing a career in art, such as “working without the pressure of success”. The choice to list thirteen problems women face is symbolic in itself, as thirteen is culturally regarded as an unlucky number. Each one of the items on the list uses satire to bring attention to how women have been conveniently left out of much of history and lack recognition. For example, “not having to be in shows with men” references how many exhibitions of the time did not invite women to showcase their work, or were greatly outnumbered by the work of men. The third and fourth statements on their list, “having an escape from the art world in your 4 free-lance jobs” and “knowing your career might pick up after you’re eighty” implies that women are rarely able to be successful in their career as an artists, and if they are, its usually after their career has ended or near its end. The last point on this list reads that an advantage of being a woman artist is “getting your picture in the art magazines wearing a gorilla suit” directly references the Guerrilla Girls themselves, and the fact that in order to get recognition and inclusion for women artists they have to make posters like that in the first place.

     “The The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist” is a poster that uses a plain sans serif font in black on a white background. Like a majority of their work from that decade, the design is very simple and text based. This piece in particular is reminiscent of the style of one of the conceptual artists they gained inspiration from, Jenny Holzer. In the same way that Holzer’s work was monochromatic, and focused on social commentary, and purely revolved around text and the message of the text and statements, did was “The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist”.

Sources Cited

Manchester, Elizabeth. “Dearest Art Collector.” Tate.org.uk, http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guerrilla-girls-dearest-art-collector-p78802.

Seiferle, Rebecca. “The Guerrilla Girls Artist Overview and Analysis.” TheArtStory.org, http://www.theartstory.org/artist-guerrilla-girls.htm.