Artist and activist Joyce Kozloff has, after 41 years, removed the mask by revealing in a new interview with Art Journal Open that she was among the founding members of the Guerrilla Girls.
She also disclosed that “Liubov Popova” was the pseudonym assigned to her within the collective, whose members adopted the names of deceased women artists to protect their anonymity. In 2016, she published a (sneaky) biographical essay in Hyperallergic that explored and praised the Russian artist’s artistic development and career highlights over her tragically brief life.
“No one pressed me into coming out,” Kozloff said in an email to Hyperallergic after the interview was published. “Over the years, there were many members of the community who knew at least some of our identities. But there was a closing of the ranks to protect us, which always moved me. It never leaked to the press. We used to say, when asked, ‘All women are Guerrilla Girls,’ and I believe that.”
The artist added that more than 50 women have joined the Guerrilla Girls since 1985, and that “most, but not all, of the women have already come out.”
