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Object Timeline

-0001

1989

  • Work on this object began.

2009

  • We acquired this object.

2013

2015

2025

  • You found it!

Poster, Do Women Have to be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum?

This is a Poster. It is dated 1989 and we acquired it in 2009. Its medium is photo-offset lithograph on paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

The Guerrilla Girls, founded in 1985, are a group of anonymous female graphic designers who create unique combination of content and eye catching graphics to present feminist viewpoints in a sly, ironic way. Do Women Have to be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum? is proposed for acquisition along with another Guerrilla Girls poster; the pair would be the first posters by this design group to enter the collection.

This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled Guerilla Feminism.

This object was donated by Marc Benda. It is credited Gift of Sara and Marc Benda.

  • Drawing, View of a Masquerade Ball
  • pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, watercolor, black chalk on white laid....
  • Purchased for the Museum by the Advisory Council.
  • 1911-28-38
  •

Our curators have highlighted 11 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

  • Poster, Blues Project
  • offset lithograph on white wove paper.
  • Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie J. Schreyer.
  • 1979-34-39
  •
  • Poster, Big Nudes
  • offset lithograph on paper.
  • Gift of Sara and Marc Benda.
  • 2009-20-3
  •

Its dimensions are

Image: 27.5 × 71.1 cm (10 13/16 in. × 28 in.)

It is inscribed

Printed in black ink: Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?; printed in black and red inks, below: Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern/ Art sections are women, but 85%/ of the nudes are female./ Guerrilla Girls Conscience of the Art World/ www.guerrillagirls.com.

Cite this object as

Poster, Do Women Have to be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum?; USA; photo-offset lithograph on paper; Image: 27.5 × 71.1 cm (10 13/16 in. × 28 in.); Gift of Sara and Marc Benda; 2009-20-2

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition How Posters Work.

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

For higher resolution or commercial use contact ArtResource.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18731763/ |title=Poster, Do Women Have to be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum? |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=6 July 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>