How to Be a Guerrilla Girl

Exhibition
A nude female with the head of a gorilla mask reclines against a background of neon pink showing photo strips of people in skirts, boots, and gorilla masks posting in a studio.

Overleaf, foreground: Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met Museum? (detail), 1989, Offset print; background: Contact Sheets (details), ca. 1987, Gelatin silver prints. Guerrilla Girls (American, active since 1985). Getty Research Institute, 2008.M.14. Courtesy Guerrilla Girls. © Guerrilla Girls. Design © 2025 J. Paul Getty Trust

How to Be a Guerrilla Girl presents the inner workings of the anonymous feminist art collective alongside a new commission at the Getty Research Institute. Drawing on the Guerrilla Girls’ archive, the exhibition explores the steps the group took to create their eye-catching and humorous public interventions. The exhibition places the Guerrilla Girls’ well-known posters in the broader context of their data research, protest actions, culture jamming, and distribution methods. Coinciding with the Guerrilla Girls’ 40th anniversary, the exhibition tells the story of their collaborative process and longstanding commitment to call for equity for women and artists of color in the art world.

​​This exhibition is presented in English and Spanish. Esta exhibición se presenta en inglés y en español.

Nov 18, 2025–Apr 12, 2026

Getty Center

Research Institute Galleries

Free

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Selected Works

  • First They Try to Take Away a Woman’s Right to Choose, c. 1991, Guerrilla Girls (American, active since 1985)

    Mixed media (electrostatic print, ink and color marker on paper, tape). Getty Research Institute, 2008.M.14. Used with permission. © Guerrilla Girls. Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust

    Poster, Venus de Milo, pink leaves cover her mouth, breasts, and genitals and reads First they try to take away a woman’s right to choose. Now they’re trying to censor art. Don’t let it happen!

  • How To Become A Guerrilla Girl, 1985–1987, Guerrilla Girls (American, active since 1985)

    Electrostatic print on paper. Getty Research Institute, 2008.M.14. Used with permission. © Guerrilla Girls. Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust

    Pink paper with text: "How to become a Guerrilla girl! 1. Think of the name of a black woman artist. 2. Pass it on to a curator or collector."

  • Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum? draft, c. 1989, Guerrilla Girls (American, active since 1985)

    Mixed media (electrostatic print on paper, ink on paper and acetate). Used with permission. © Guerrilla Girls. Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust

    A bold yellow poster with black text reading "Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?" and showing a nude female form with a gorilla mask head

  • Guerrilla Girls New York City Group Portrait, 1994, Teri Slotkin (American, b. 1948)

    C-print. © Teri Slotkin, New York, 1994. All rights reserved. Courtesy Guerrilla Girls © Guerrilla Girls. Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust

    A group of ten people wearing gorilla masks, posing against and climbing up a city fence.

  • Hot Flashes Logo Lock-Up, ca. 1993, Guerrilla Girls (American, active since 1985)

    Mixed media (Gelatin silver print, cut newsprint, tape). Courtesy Guerrilla Girls © Guerrilla Girls. Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust

    The body of a nude odalisque from a 19th-c. painting wearing a gorilla mask and with a cell phone and computer

  • Guerrilla Girls, 1990, Ute Schendel (German, b. 1948)

    Gelatin silver print. Getty Research Institute, 2008.M.14.62. Used with permission. © by Ute Schendel. © Guerrilla Girls. Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust

    A group of three people wearing gorilla masks, one talking into a microphone with a single gloved hand raised.

  • Advantages of Being a Male and Female Artist [Ink and marker], 1988, Guerrilla Girls (American, active since 1985)

    Ink and marker on paper. Getty Research Institute, 2008.M.14.20. Used with permission. © Guerrilla Girls. Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust

    Torn-out page of notebook paper with two handwritten columns, some items of which are crossed out

  • Guerrilla Girls Dressed as Detectives, 1987, Guerrilla Girls (American, active since 1985)

    Gelatin silver print. Getty Research Institute, 2008.M.14.4. Used with permission. © Guerrilla Girls. Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust

    wo figures in trench coats and gorilla masks whisper to each other

  • Fan Letter, ca. 1993, Anonymous

    Electrostatic print. Getty Research Institute, 2008.M.14. Used with permission. © Guerrilla Girls. Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust

    Pink poster print of a supportive note to the Guerrilla Girls from a Boston supporter. Reads: "You created quite a stir in Boston. I've been a fan...keep fighting the good fight"

Related Tours

Inside the Guerrilla Girls’s Collective Practice

A new Getty show celebrates 40 years of an anonymous collective’s activism against inequity in the art world

A group of ten people wearing gorilla masks, posing against and climbing up a city fence.
Guerrilla Girls New York City Group Portrait, 1994, Teri Slotkin (American, b. 1948). C-print. © Teri Slotkin, New York, 1994. All rights reserved. Courtesy Guerrilla Girls © Guerrilla Girls. Photo: J. Paul Getty Trust

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News & Stories

  1. How to Be a Guerrilla Girl

    Press Release

    An exhibition celebrating 40 years of art, activism, and anonymity

    Oct 6, 2025

  2. The Guerrilla Girls Archive

    Article

    “When racism and sexism are no longer fashionable, what will your art collection be worth?” A look at the “bad girls” of the art world

    Nov 11, 2014

Exhibition Resources

  1. Guerrilla Girls records, 1979–2003

    Collection record

  2. SmartHistory: Guerrilla Girls, "Dearest Art Collector"

    Video

  3. SmartHistory: Guerrilla Girls, "Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?"

    Video

  4. SmartHistory: Guerrilla Girls, "Advantages of Being a Woman Artist"

    Video

  5. Expanding the Study of Performance in Women Artists' Archives

    Project information

  6. Guerrilla Girls Archival Clips

    Video