Document 4: Guerrilla Girls, "These Critics Don't Write Enough About Women Artists," 1985, in Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls, by the Guerrilla Girls (whoever they really are) (New York: HarperPerennial, 1995), p. 37.
Introduction
Much art criticism during this time was no longer independent or disinterested, but rather was part of the publicity for gallery and museum exhibitions. In "The Business of Art: Catalog Culture," published in the June 1988 edition of Arts Magazine, art critic Allan Schwartzman maintained that critics had become vulnerable to compromise by writing for galleries. The Guerrilla Girls attacked this aspect of the art world, pointing to the art critics and magazines that were part of the trickle-down process that eliminated women and artists of color from the cultural record. This 1985 poster lists the names of such art critics, including Roberta Smith of the New York Times. In Smith's 1990 New York Times article, "Waging Guerrilla Warfare Against the Art World," art critic and curator Lisa Phillips discusses Guerrilla Girl tactics. She states, "Their poster project has been extremely effective in reorienting art-world thinking. . . . It's shocking seeing your name associated with practices you don't condone."[24]
Copyright © 1985 by the Guerrilla Girls
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