We’ve Encouraged Our Galleries To Show More Women And Artists Of Color. Have You? 1989

Curator: This artwork, "We've Encouraged Our Galleries To Show More Women And Artists Of Color. Have You?" is by the Guerrilla Girls. It’s a broadside, a kind of poster, printed with stark black text on white paper. Editor: It's such a direct, confrontational piece. The question just leaps out at you. Curator: It's true. The Guerrilla Girls use this in-your-face approach to expose the art world's biases. The visual language of advertising becomes a tool for critique. Editor: Those lists of names beneath the title… are they supposed to be the *successful* artists? The ones presumably being shown *instead* of women and artists of color? Curator: Exactly. They’re holding up a mirror, reflecting back the uncomfortable truth of exclusion. Editor: The piece feels as relevant today as it must have when it was created. The question still hangs heavy, doesn't it? Curator: It does, and I think that's the Guerrilla Girls' enduring power: they use simple, accessible images to spark difficult conversations.