Introduction: Odalisque in Grisaille

Museums Without Men at The Met opens with a conversation about the Guerrilla Girls's poster Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum? Because this poster is not on view, the tour starts at Odalisque in Grisaille, which served as inspiration for the work.

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Have you ever wandered the galleries at The Met and thought about the gender representation on display? In 1989, the Guerrilla Girls questioned this and famously found out that “Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art sections are women, but 85% of the nudes are female.” Katy Hessel and Met curator Allison Rudnick revisit this 20th-century art collective’s public bus campaign that challenges patriarchal assumptions about the legitimacy of artists.