Guerrilla Girls: 40 Years Ago

Upcoming: Spring 2026

Forty years ago, in response to the exhibition An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in which only thirteen of 165 artists were female-identifying, a group of artists and creative minds birthed an anonymous collective to call attention to art-world inequities.

The collective’s name—the Guerrilla Girls—was inspired by war tactics devised to be irregular, sudden, and often shocking. In their work, each “Girl” adopted anonymity in two ways. First, they assumed the name of female creatives from the past, such as Gertrude Stein, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Zora Neale Hurston, thus giving “new” voice to creative women throughout history. Second, they donned gorilla masks, inspired by an accidental misspelling of the word “guerrilla.”

Over the past four decades, the Guerrilla Girls have protested various forms of corruption through mass-produced works featuring simplistic, yet eye-capturing typography, bright contrasting colors, loaded infographics, and their signature rhetorical and sardonic language. They have extended their message internationally through actions and exhibitions. While their origins stemmed from the art world, their agenda has since expanded to critique sexism, homophobia, and racism in areas such as film, mass culture, economics, and politics, to name a few.

Guerrilla Girls: 40 Years Ago features work from the collective’s earliest years, drawn from the Guerrilla Girls Portfolio Compleat, 1985–2021; highlights their iconic beginnings almost half a century ago; examines the Girls’ earliest concerns with the art world; and allows us to see not only what has changed since then, but also where true progress has yet to be made.

Portfolio - Guerrilla Girls poster spread



Guerrilla Girls: 40 Years Ago is organized by the Neuberger Museum of Art. Generous support for this exhibition has been provided by the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art.