{"id":2743,"date":"2021-12-03T21:47:38","date_gmt":"2021-12-04T02:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artnsketch.com\/?p=2743"},"modified":"2022-04-12T15:46:31","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T19:46:31","slug":"judy-chicago-what-do-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artnsketch.com\/judy-chicago-what-do-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Judy Chicago – What Do You Need to Know?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Judy Chicago is no doubt one of the most iconic female characters that have ever been in the art scene. She is a must-know feminist artist for art lovers and she became an inspiration for not only a number of upcoming female artists but also reached a broad audience. Therefore, this could be the right time to know Judy Chicago’s true soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHO IS JUDY CHICAGO?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Judy Chicago is an American feminist artist born in Chicago, the US, in 1939. She is known for her large-scale art installation pieces that sought attention to women\u2019s role in society and reflected women\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To understand artists\u2019 work, it is necessary to understand their stories. So, let’s get to know Judy Chicago better!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judy Chicago’s story and struggle with the male-dominated art society began at her very early ages. Her father was a Marxist and believed in gender equality. However, many shaping the art scene did not have the same belief at the time. To illustrate, Minimalism, pioneered by a group of influential male artists, including Donald Judd<\/a> and Carl Andre<\/a>, was the dominant movement in American art. Although, it is a fact that Minimalists were not the only group of men that shaped the art scene.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Judy Chicago is an American feminist artist born in Chicago, US in 1939. Photo by Minesh Bacrania<\/a>.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

“Art Can Change the World”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, in Chicago’s interviews, she tells the story of her early ages and her father\u2019s influence, which you can find below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was repeatedly told that I cannot become a woman and artist too when I was a little girl. From a very early age, my dream was to become an artist and make a contribution to art history. I do not think art can change the world. I think art can educate, inspire and empower people to act.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to her father\u2019s influence, surely she inherited an ideal from her father to contribute to the world as you can see below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was a person who was interested in trying to make a contribution to the world and who taught me that was my obligation and at 13 years old with my father died I had to make a decision about whether to believe the world or my own experience and at 13 I learned just because everybody says something doesn’t make it true.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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FROM JUDY COHEN GEROWITZ TO JUDY CHICAGO<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Judy Chicago always stood behind her ideals. Firstly, to be free of male dominance and stand up to the practice, and the artist got rid of her father\u2019s and husband\u2019s surname. And later, she changed it from Cohen Gerowitz to Chicago in 1970 since she was a native of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Womanhouse<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 1972 Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro<\/a> (Aka Mimi) (Died on June 20, 2015 – Aged 91), who was a friend of Chicago and a pioneer on feminist art movement, came together and established the Womanhouse<\/a>, a feminist art installation and performance area which was the first public exhibition of Feminist Art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The front page of the exhibition catalog for “Womanhouse”<\/em> (January 30 \u2013 February 28, 1972)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Womanhouse was set up in an abandoned house in Hollywood, LA. The installation involved 28 female artists who displayed their works through the various rooms in the house. Judy Chicago’s work could be found in the “Menstruation Bathroom” and Miriam Schapiro’s in “The Dollhouse Room.” In fact, on the opening day of the exhibition, men were not allowed to visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Judy Chicago (left) and Miriam Schapiro (right), 1972. Image courtesy of the CalArts Institute Archives.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

JUDY CHICAGO\u2019S STYLE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Apart from questioning the authority of the male-dominated Western world and its art society, Judy Chicago is also distinguished for the style reflecting her bold character.
Looking through the artist\u2019s work helps us understand that her long career has never ceased evolving. By which I mean, in the early periods of Chicago\u2019s career, she intensely focused on color. However, the fine arts school didn’t agree with Judy\u2019s choice of bright colors when she was studying. Besides, she even enjoys telling the story about her instructors, who hated her bold and bright use of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is possible to see the transition period that came true in her mature artworks changing from color-focused work to form-focused, Judy Chicago never lost the character of color application unique to herself though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Rainbow Pickett” by Judy Chicago, displayed in Brooklyn Museum, 2014. Photo by Suzanne DeChillo\/The New York Times.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Today, Judy Chicago is considered one of the most influential characters of the 20th century; however, we cannot say the art society welcomed her perspective in a very friendly way. On the contrary, the explicit female content has caused some controversy.
Particularly the “Birth Project”, has been \u201cmarginalized\u201d for depicting vaginas in a very explicit way. Therefore, this could simply explain why Judy Chicago defines herself as \u201can artist and a troublemaker<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFeminism is Humanism\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Judy Chicago strongly believed in feminism and explained her view by saying: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I believe in art that is connected to real human feeling, that extends itself beyond the limits of the art world to embrace all people who are striving for alternatives in an increasingly dehumanized world. I am trying to make art that relates to the deepest and most mythic concerns of humankind and I believe that, at this moment of history, feminism is humanism.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Judy Chicago while she is working on her most renowned The Dinner Party,1978.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

WHAT IS JUDY CHICAGO FAMOUS FOR?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Dinner Party<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Judy Chicago gained worldwide recognition through her outstanding artwork, The Dinner Party<\/em> (1974-1979), a monumental installation work celebrating the forgotten achievements of women throughout history.
Chicago\u2019s The Dinner Party has the form of a triangular table with symbolic places set for 39 “guests of honor”\u2014representing remarkable women from various periods of Western civilization. Firstly, each guest has her own runner, embroidered with a combination of her name on one side and imagery portraying her achievement on the other. In addition, each place setting includes a glass plate with a butterfly or floral design symbolizing the vulva.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Dinner Party was created by Judy Chicago in 1979. It is on display in Brooklyn Museum, NYC.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Chicago describes the artwork by saying:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a reinterpretation of The Last Supper from the point of view of women, who, throughout history, have prepared the meals and set the table.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Since its first display, the work has reached a vast audience; over one million people have visited it. Eventually, The Dinner Party is in the permanent collection at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Most of the curators and critics believe that The Dinner Party has overshadowed the diversity of her art practice. The artist and the troublemaker indeed has tackled various topics ranging from minimalism to land art, death, birth, climate change, extinction, history painting, embroidery, male domination, depression, and the Holocaust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Each place setting includes a glass plate.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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These glass plates are designed to symbolize the vulva.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Birth Project<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For the Birth Project (1980-85), Judy Chicago focused her attention on what she believed to be a vital blind spot in the history of art, getting inspired by the quote, \u201cThe truth is found in the ignored, forgotten and the left out.\u201d: The representation of birth. Therefore she collaborated with 150 volunteer needleworkers from different parts of the United States and produced 85 needlepoint works that portray women who are pregnant or giving birth while representing them in an indescribable joy and excruciating pain at the same time. In fact, she even witnessed an actual birth to have a better sense of conveying the imagery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Birth Tear” by Judy Chicago. Embroidery by Jane Gaddie Thompson. Created as a part of the Birth Project, 1982.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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“Logo” from Birth Project, 1984. Designed by Judy Chicago, embroidered by Pamella Nesbit.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Once, Judy Chicago said the project was shaped as a response to Michelangelo\u2019s \u201cCreation of Adam\u201d on the Sistine Chapel\u2019s ceilings which depicted the Biblical story of the creation in which God gave life to Adam and chose to follow a completely revolutionary path and depicted a female Earth and a female deity as the creator of all the creatures in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Birth Garments” are on display in Milwaukee, WI, 1985.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

IN WHICH MUSEUMS YOU CAN FIND WORKS OF JUDY CHICAGO?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many prominent permanent collections of many major museums included Judy Chicago\u2019s works. You can check some of the important ones in the list below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dinner Party (1979)<\/td>Brooklyn Museum<\/a><\/td>Brooklyn, NYC, US<\/td><\/tr>
Sky Sun from Flesh Gardens (1971)<\/td>Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago<\/a><\/td>Chicago, US<\/td><\/tr>
Earth Birth (1983)<\/td>Brooklyn Museum<\/a><\/td>Brooklyn, NYC, US<\/td><\/tr>
The Creation (1984)<\/td>Museum of Arts and Design (MAD)<\/a><\/td>Manhattan, NYC, US<\/td><\/tr>
Birth Garment II: Flowering Scrub (1984)<\/td>Albuquerque Museum<\/a><\/td>Albuquerque, New Mexico, US<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Other than those works mentioned above, you can come across Chicago\u2019s works in many other museums including;<\/p>\n\n\n\n