Dearest Art Collector
- Artist: Guerrilla Girls
- Date: 1986
- Medium: Screenprint on paper
- Dimensions: image: 560 × 430 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
Dearest Art Collector by the Guerrilla Girls is a screenprint from 1986, measuring 560 × 430 mm. It’s a handwritten letter printed on a pop‑pink background, complete with a sad‑face flower drawing and the group’s PO Box address. The Guerrilla Girls, an anonymous collective of women artists, formed in 1985 in reaction to the stark gender imbalance at MoMA’s 1984 exhibition, where only 13 of 169 artists were women. Their work is famous for bold, data‑driven text, witty sarcasm, and ironic questions that hold major art institutions accountable. In this piece the girls write to an unnamed collector, expressing confidence that the collector will support more women artists. The poster blends humour with sharp social critique, using gorilla masks and pseudonyms of celebrated dead women—like Frida Kahlo and Gertrude Stein—to protect identities while challenging sexism, racism, and homophobia in the art world. It’s one of thirty posters in their “Guerrilla Girls Talk Back” portfolio, illustrating their enduring activism through print.
See it in person
Dearest Art Collector is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
