Battle of the Sexes from the portfolio: Guerrilla Girls’ Most Wanted: 1985–2008
Artist
Guerrilla Girls
(Artist collective, active 1985–present)
Date1996 (printed 2008)
MediumOffset lithograph on paper
DimensionsSheet: 11 x 14 1/8 inches (27.9 x 35.9 cm)
ClassificationsPrint
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number2011.6.1.21
Collections
- ART OF THE UNITED STATES
- MODERN & CONTEMPORARY
- WORKS ON PAPER
Edition50
State8
Label TextThe Guerrilla Girls, a contemporary collective whose anonymous members wear gorilla masks to conceal their identities, subvert notions of individual authorship as they jointly fight for equality in the arts and society. Using various printing techniques often in poster format, they alert wide audiences to the exclusion of marginalized communities from museums, galleries, and the pages of art magazines.
In Battle of the Sexes, the Guerrilla Girls appropriate imagery from ancient friezes that once adorned the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (c. 350 BCE) in present-day Türkiye. The original friezes depicted Greek males battling the Amazons, a mythological tribe of warrior women, in a clash symbolizing Greece’s superiority over inferior civilizations. The artists overlay sarcastic phrases, quotes, and statistics onto the frieze, suggesting the persistence of violence against women and effects of discrimination in the work place over time.
In Battle of the Sexes, the Guerrilla Girls appropriate imagery from ancient friezes that once adorned the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (c. 350 BCE) in present-day Türkiye. The original friezes depicted Greek males battling the Amazons, a mythological tribe of warrior women, in a clash symbolizing Greece’s superiority over inferior civilizations. The artists overlay sarcastic phrases, quotes, and statistics onto the frieze, suggesting the persistence of violence against women and effects of discrimination in the work place over time.