Judy Chicago "Heads Up"

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JUDY CHICAGO Heads Up


ISBN: 978-0-9834078-1-2

FRONT COVER: Face Lift, 2013, Cast glass and lacquered bronze, 18” x 16.5” x 16.5” BACK COVER: Exposed Head, 2007, Watercolor, 12” x 10” ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Published on the occasion of the exhibition: HEADS UP June 14 – July 26, 2014 David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Gallery Staff: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, Managers Published by: David Richard Gallery, LLC, Santa Fe, NM No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in whole or part in digital or printed form of any kind whatsoever without the express written permission of David Richard Gallery, LLC. Catalogue: © 2014 David Richard Gallery, LLC, Santa Fe, New Mexico. All rights reserved. Essay: © 2014 Dr. Kathy Battista, New York, NY, Art: © 2007-2014, Judy Chicago. All rights reserved. Photos of Art: Donald Woodman Catalogue Design: David Eichholtz and Richard Barger, David Richard Gallery, LLC, Santa Fe, NM Printed by: American Web, Denver Colorado


Body and Soul

By Dr. Kathy Battista “I wanted to translate particular experiences into universal observations.” (Judy Chicago) Judy Chicago’s practice has shown an abiding fixation on the body in the broadest of terms. Whether in abstracted metaphors, such as the butterfly vaginal imagery found in The Dinner Party plates, Pasadena Lifesavers, and some images from the Birth Project series, or more straightforward depiction as in PowerPlay or the Holocaust Project, the figure has played a central role in Chicago’s work. While the female figure was of paramount importance during her investigations into women’s experiences, the male body was given equal shrift in later series. In her new body of work at David Richard Gallery, she focuses on the head, the apex of the human body, in its most universal form. Departing from earlier series of Chicago’s that have embraced individual narratives, these recent creations are anonymous. They speak to general states of consciousness rather than individual histories. They talk—if sculptures and drawings could transmit language—of the emotions we all feel and observe: smiling through clenched teeth, crying from pain or grief, feeling fear of the known, or being silenced by someone or something. The artist has arrived at this position of artistic and personal maturity after an impressive career spanning over half a century. From her earliest exhibitions in 1960s west coast US, Chicago has always demanded an attention to detail that demanded a high level of production; indeed, her work has always been characterized by an extreme mastery of materials and process. Since her earliest works in a more minimal, finish fetish style, Chicago’s Car Hoods and Pasadena Lifesavers saw her master techniques that required her to attend auto body school and learn complex procedures for working with fiberglass, resin and car paint. In the following decade her Dinner Party project required a multitude of skills including ceramics, china painting and a range of needlework techniques including ecclesiastical embroidery. It was during Chicago’s Holocaust Project that she became interested in working with glass. Her large-scale stained glass Rainbow Shabbat was hand painted after a detailed cartoon by the artist and fabricated with the help of a glass artist Bob Gomez. This epic finale to the project takes a medium associated with vernacular religious architecture and implants it into a gallery context, albeit an alternative space of secular sanctity. Art has often been a collaborative process for Chicago and this new series is again indicative of her capacity to work with others. As Chicago says, glass is an inherently collaborative medium, and the artist refined her skills during a residency at Pilchuck Glass School outside of Seattle. Chicago’s Heads Up, like most of her previous series, consists of various stages and levels of production. The artist is a notoriously diligent worker, producing a multitude of sketches, watercolors, and test casts corresponding to each element of the series. A visit to her studio is a treasure hunt through piles of meticulously crafted drawings, test swatches of colors and materials, and various objects of inspiration. For an artist whose work is most often associated with feminist art and the women’s movement, Heads Up represent a collective human experience rather than any demographic specificity. While the Heads are modeled on the physiognomy of real people, in some instances it is difficult to determine the gender of the corresponding sculpture. Chicago enjoys this ambiguity, which attests to an overarching theme of the series: a common understanding of emotions that are suppressed or released. What lies beneath the surface of the person, and that intangible uniqueness of each being which cannot be seen, is what Chicago explores here. Glass is the ideal medium for such investigation: its transparent nature allows the viewer to reach beyond the superficial and to get inside the structure. And as in every body of her work, Chicago’s technical prowess is astute: the sculptures bear witness to this mastery of her hand as well as the holistic approach to making art.


Body

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The body, mind, and soul exist simultaneously in Aristotle’s philosophy. A soul is what sets humanity apart from other species and is ascribed as a character of certain living things, including most importantly, defying the mortal condition. If the body is the base of this philosophical trilogy, the flesh and blood that we consist of that demands food, water, and sleep, the soul is the ethereal, intangible aspect that transcends mortal attributes. If the corporal form is understood to contain the body, and the head in particular is the seat of the mind, the soul transcends these physical attributes and exists beyond the endurance of the flesh. The duality between body and mind is a fixture of most philosophical epistemologies. Heads Up may be seen as representative of all three categories: the physicality of the titular heads, the ethereality of the glass; and the titles reflective of state of mind. Chicago’s exhibition at David Richard Gallery echoes the ascending troilism of body, mind and soul in its tripartite form: 24 watercolors on paper may be read as equivalent to the corporal. In some cases the drawings serve as studies for the three-dimensional heads that form a sizable contribution to the new exhibition. These drawings, such as Study for Face Lift and Man with a Rose Mouth give insight into the artist’s methodical practice. Meticulously drawn and painted, they show the initial inquiries into forms that eventually were rendered in real, three-dimensional space.

Study for Face Lift, 2010, Watercolor, Prismacolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 10”

Man with Rose Mouth, 2008, Watercolor, Prismacolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 9”


Other watercolors—Smiling Through Gritted Teeth and Tasting the Mortal Coil—echo the works on glass slabs that form another part of the exhibition. Smiling Through Gritted Teeth shows the bottom half of an anonymous face. Its composition is binary: the right half of the drawing shows a face that is apparently grinning. On the left side of the work the interior of the person is revealed: sinews and muscle and most crucially, teeth, are exposed to the viewer. Chicago’s work here acknowledges a fascination with surfaces, but moves beyond what the eye can see. This recalls most overtly anatomical drawings of the early sixteenth century, including those by Leonardo DaVinci, who hid in morgues to understand better the human anatomy. Chicago’s drawings also represent the emotional surfaces that are much more difficult to navigate and comprehend. It is here—beneath the surface—that the viewer sees the gritting teeth associated with the title. The artist is referencing so many human experiences in this one image: a person who is hiding their true feelings, who smiles to the outside world but has a tumultuous interior life. We have all been there, both as the smiling person, as well as the observer who knows that all is not copasetic. Jealous lovers, grieving daughters, annoyed co-workers… Chicago delves deeper into the psychological state of her subjects than any physical particularity.

Smiling through Gritted Teeth, 2007, Watercolor and Prismacolor on paper, 9” x 12” Tasting the Mortal Coil, 2007, Watercolor and Prismacolor on paper, 12” x 9”

Mind A key section of Heads Up is a series of fifteen paintings on glass. As in Chicago’s previous series, these are notable for their sophisticated use of color and form. Draftsmanship has always been a skill of Chicago’s, since her childhood when she would take weekly art classes. Drawing is a practice that she does obsessively, and these here take the form of three-dimensional, painted glass slabs.1 As in the drawings on paper, the colors and line are scrupulous and reached with painstaking trial and error. Chicago had to find particular paints that could withstand multiple firings that lasted up to a week in the kiln. Chicago refers to these objects as “images that exist in space”. Painted from behind and fired, these are as precarious to create as any of her other glass and ceramic works. 1

These vary from 3/8 to ½ inch thick glass.

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Under the Skin shows a man of African descent, with the right half of his face flayed. The model for this work is actually the artist’s FedEx delivery man Mike, who saw the heads being produced in the studio and offered himself as a model for the work. The title and its corresponding composition indicate that we are all the same under the surface— that we are all flesh and blood and all suffer the same traumas—despite the color of our skin. This is a longstanding political position for Chicago, who lived as an activist through both the women’s and the civil rights movements.

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Under the Skin, 2013, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6”

Torn Up is another of the glass paintings that features a flayed face. One half of it shows a person crying with tears spilling down and beyond the face. This piece is exquisite in its level of detail and combination of colors. These glass works are fired repeatedly and requires almost twenty-four hour attention. The titles, which are painted on to the lower left hand corner of the glass slabs, feature Chicago’s signature cursive writing, an abiding feature of many of her artworks. This is metonymic of her practice: her hand—as seen in the signature—is everywhere throughout the work. There is no part of the work that has not been labored over by the artist. While she works with collaborators to be technically proficient, she is always completely engaged with the process. Soul

Torn Up, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6”

A series of eighteen heads made of glass, ceramic and cast bronze forms the most physically substantial section of the exhibition. The heads may be considered as an outgrowth of Chicago’s earlier

work in glass, which focused on hands as primary subject matter.2 These sculptures, each resembling life size busts shown on a presentation base, capture a haunting quality that is simultaneously elegant and unsettling. While they are the largest works in the exhibition, they are also the most ethereal. They move beyond the physical world to that of the everlasting: they seem to hover like ghosts from previous generations. Busts of great men are strewn throughout the history of art as memorials to powerful and significant figures. I challenge a viewer to name a bust of a woman in the history of art. Chicago’s Heads are a welcome alternative to this male-dominated genre. Her heads are of ambiguous gender and identity: while in some there is the hint of the male or in others the female, they are never directly attributed to a man or woman. While they were modeled on real people, the most important aspect of her series is the lack of naming individuals. Again, they speak to the universal that moves beyond a geopolitical specificity. 2

See David McFadden, ‘The Voice in the Veins’, Chicago in Glass, LewAllen Contemporary.


Bronze Flowering Head is a sculpture that that appears masculine in its countenance and form. Indeed, the hairline3 indicates a male figure. Its mouth is open, a large glass flower protruding from its lips. At once the figure is both silenced and gagged, suggesting a form of comical or sexual violence. In Chicago’s vocabulary, flowers have come to be understood as stand-ins for female genitals. Is the flower indicative of the artist herself, silencing her critics who have so often denigrated feminist practice? Is she suffocating her male adversaries with beauty, so resisted by the henchmen critics of feminist art? Again, the material precision of the work is laudable: the bronze head is combined with a glass and lacquer flower, this breathtaking combination of techniques is no simple technical feat. Face Lift is one of the most disturbing of the series, comprising of a head that is sliced through on one side, intersected with a slab-like profile. The wedge resembles a bookend that holds up the face, which appears to grimace as if distressed. The ‘lift’, or sliver section, suggests the smile or countenance that we put on for the outside world and recalls drawings mentioned earlier in this text. On a more literal level, the title also recalls the prevalence of plastic surgery in today’s society. Medical advances have enabled humans to resist the aging process; this may be seen as the physical equivalent to the emotional sublimation we experience. It is also a form of oppression, especially for the female of the species: even more pressure is exerted to stay young, resist aging and appear as an eternally desirable object rather than to age gracefully.

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Bronze Flowering Head, 2013, Bronze, lacquer and flame worked glass, 15” x 16” x 16”

Weeping Head with Golden Lips is a poignant work that again is paradigmatic of a universal human experience. Crying may be associated with both tears Face Lift, 2013, Cast glass and lacquered bronze, 18” x 16.5” x 16.5” of sorrow and joy. Here one sees what appears to be a male figure with tears cascading down his left cheek. The slick white of the delicate porcelain surface contrasts with both the black, mask-like eyes as well as the golden lips and tears. The work conflates the precision of Delft ceramics (see also Delft Head #1 and #2)4 with the ethnic masquerade of a Mexican luchador. The artist suggests that the masks that we wear everyday hide many significant emotions and personal pain. Like the luchador masks, our behavior is constructed, an act that we perform. In this sculpture the tears spill beyond the mask, penetrating through to the real emotions of the situation. These shared emotional responses 3

The artist creates the waves in the hair by hand before it is cast in bronze. From a discussion with the artist in her studio,

January 2014.


—performing a role, breaking down to tears—cross any cultural boundaries or generational divides.

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The early decades of the twenty-first century have witnessed advances in technology and information processing that have changed the way that we live as well as the forms of art practice. While many of today’s leading artists work in a removed, executive manner, Chicago is hands-on, in the studio, singlehandedly producing an enormous body of drawings, paintings and sculptures for each project. Her physical energy is matched only by the plethora of ideas that spews forth from her imagination. It is almost as if the hand cannot keep pace with her prodigious mind. This leads us back to the philosophical musings on the body, mind and soul. How does an artist reconcile the physical manifestation of art practice with the ideas and inspirations that flow through her thoughts? For Chicago it is a simple solution: she produces thoroughly researched, exquisitely executed bodies of work that will remain a legacy long after her physical body expires. The soul of Chicago will live on in the legacy of artwork that she has produced. From her earliest forays to this newest series of work, her ability to transcend time and place and speak to universal human experiences is as important as any Renaissance master.

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Chicago studied china painting and Delft ceramics as early as the 1970s in her research for The Dinner Party.


WEEPING HEAD WITH GOLDEN LIPS, 2012 China paint on white ceramic, 13” x 16” x 16”

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BRONZE FLOWERING HEAD, 2013, Bronze, lacquer and flame worked glass, 15” x 16” x 16”

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GRAND BRONZE WITH GOLDEN TONGUE, 2013 Lacquered bronze, gold plating and gold leaf, 28.5” x 24” x 24”

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GLASS FLOWERING HEAD, 2013, Cast glass and copper plated bronze, 14” x 16” x 16”

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HEAD WITH COPPER NOSE, 2013, Cast glass, gilding, bronze and copper plate, 17.5” x 16” x 16”

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MASKED HEAD, 2013, Cast glass, bronze and lacquer, 17” x 16.5” x 16.5”

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DISAPPOINTED HEAD, 2013, Enamel on bronze, 22” x 19.5” x 19.5”

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STUDY FOR FACE LIFT, 2010, Watercolor, Prismacolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 10”

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FACE LIFT, 2013, Cast glass and lacquered bronze, 18” x 16.5” x 16.5”

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BURNING HEAD, 2012, China paint on white ceramic, 13” x 16” x 16”

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GRAND HEAD WITH BURNING EYES, 2013, Cast glass, enamel, and oil paint, 18.5” x 16” x 16”

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STUDY FOR JUDY HEART HEAD, 2010, Watercolor, Prismacolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 9“

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HEART HEAD, 2013, Cast glass, enamel and oil paint, 16.25” x 16” x 16”

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HEAD WITH OPEN EYE, 2013, Cast glass, enamel and oil paint, 17” x 16” x 16”

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FLAT FACE, 2013, Cast glass mirror and enamel, 15.5” x 16” x 16”

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BRONZE FACE IN A BOX, 2013, Patinated bronze in mirrored box, 16” x 12.63” x 5.25”

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GLASS FACE IN A BOX, 2013, Cast glass in a mirrored box, 16” x 12.63” x 5.25”

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DELFT HEAD #1, 2012, China paint on white ceramic, 13” x 16” x 16”

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DELFT HEAD #2, 2012, China paint on white ceramic, 13” x 16” x 16”

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TWIN HEADS, 2013, Cast glass, bronze and silver plating with silver gilding, 15.75” x 18” x 17.75”

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TWIN HEADS, 2013, Cast glass, bronze and silver plating with silver gilding, 15.75” x 18” x 17.75”

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TORN UP, 2007, Watercolor on paper, 12” x 9”

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TORN UP, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6”

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GRINNING/GRITTING (DIPTYCH), 2007, Watercolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 18” each

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GRINNING/GRITTING, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 15.5” x 25” x 6”

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TASTING THE MORTAL COIL, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6” TASTING THE MORTAL COIL, 2007, Watercolor and Prismacolor on paper, 12” x 9”

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SMILING THROUGH GRITTED TEETH, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 18” x 12” x 6” SMILING THROUGH GRITTED TEETH, 2007, Watercolor and Prismacolor on paper, 9” x 12”

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SKULL BROTHER, 2013, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6” STUDY FOR SKULL BROTHER, 2013, Watercolor on paper, 12” x 10“

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UNDER THE SKIN, 2013, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6” STUDY FOR UNDER THE SKIN, 2013, Watercolor on paper, 12” x 10”

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SAD FACE, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6” SAD FACE, 2007, Watercolor and tempera on paper, 12” x 10”

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UNDONE #1, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6” UNDONE #2, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.63” x 14.25” x 5.5” UNDONE, 2007, Watercolor and tempera on paper, 12” x 10“

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ANGRY EYES, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6” ANGRY EYES, 2007, Watercolor and ink on paper, 12” x 9”

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FEARFUL EYES, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6” GRIEVING EYES, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6” FEARFUL EYES, 2007, Watercolor and ink on paper, 12” x 9” GRIEVING EYES, 2007, Watercolor and ink on paper, 12” x 9”

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FALSE SMILE #1, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6” FALSE SMILE #1, 2007, Watercolor and ink on paper, 12” x 9”

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FALSE SMILE #2, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6” FALSE SMILE #3, 2012, Glass paint on Starfire glass, 14.5” x 14.5” x 6” FALSE SMILE #2, 2007, Watercolor and ink on paper, 12” x 9” FALSE SMILE #3, 2007, Watercolor and ink on paper, 12” x 9”

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WOMAN WITH FLAMING EYES, 2008, Watercolor, Prismacolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 9”

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WOMAN WITH OPEN EYE, 2008, Watercolor, Prismacolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 9” WOMAN WITH SUPPRESSED RAGE, 2008, Watercolor, Prismacolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 9”

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MAN WITH RAINBOW MOUTH, 2007, Watercolor, Prismacolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 9” MAN WITH ROSE MOUTH, 2008, Watercolor, Prismacolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 9”

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MAN WITH FLAMES OF GRIEF, 2007, Watercolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 9” MAN WITH FLAMING FACE, 2008, Watercolor, Prismacolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 9”

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STUDY FOR SHARON WITH GOLDEN MASK, 2008, Watercolor, Prismacolor and graphite on paper, 12” x 9”

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Judy Chicago Born July 20, 1939 – Chicago, IL Judy Chicago is an artist, author, feminist, educator, and intellectual whose career now spans five decades. Her influence both within and beyond the art community is attested to by her inclusion in hundreds of publications throughout the world. Her art has been frequently exhibited in the United States as well as in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition, a number of the books she has authored have been published in foreign editions, bringing her art and philosophy to readers worldwide. In the early seventies after a decade of professional art practice, Chicago pioneered Feminist art and art education through a unique program for women at California State University, Fresno, a pedagogical approach that she has continued to develop over the years. In 1974, Chicago turned her attention to the subject of women’s history to create her most well-known work, The Dinner Party, which was executed between 1974 and 1979 with the participation of hundreds of volunteers. This monumental multimedia project, a symbolic history of women in Western Civilization, has been seen by more than one million viewers during its sixteen exhibitions held at venues spanning six countries. The Dinner Party has been the subject of countless articles and art history texts and is included in innumerable publications in diverse fields. The impact of The Dinner Party was examined in the 1996 exhibition, Sexual Politics: Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party in Feminist Art History. Curated by Dr. Amelia Jones at the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum, this show was accompanied by an extensive catalog published by the University of California Press. Jones’ analysis has been updated and expanded in historian Jane Gerhard’s book The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and the Power of Popular Feminism, 1970-2007, published by the University of Georgia Press. In 2007, The Dinner Party was permanently housed at the Brooklyn Museum as the centerpiece of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, thereby achieving Chicago’s long-held goal. Recently, Chicago published a final updated book, The Dinner Party: Restoring Women to History (The Monacelli Press, 2014). From 1980 to 1985, Chicago worked on the Birth Project. Having observed an absence of iconography about the subject of birth in Western art, Chicago designed a series of birth and creation images for needlework which were executed under her supervision by 150 skilled needle workers around the country. The Birth Project, exhibited in more than 100 venues, employed the collaborative methods and a similar merging of concept and media that characterized The Dinner Party. Exhibition units from the Birth Project can be seen in numerous public collections around the country including The Albuquerque Museum where the core collection of the Birth Project has been placed to be made available for exhibition and study. While completing the Birth Project, Chicago also focused on individual studio work to create PowerPlay. In this unusual series of drawings, paintings, weavings, cast paper, and bronze reliefs, Chicago brought a critical feminist gaze to the gender construct of masculinity, exploring how prevailing definitions of power have affected the world in general -- and men in particular. The thought processes involved in PowerPlay, the artist’s long concern with issues of power and powerlessness, and a growing interest in her Jewish heritage led Chicago to her next body of art.

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Spertus Museum in Chicago, then traveled to museums around the United States until 2002. Selections from the project continue to be exhibited. The Holocaust Project involved eight years of inquiry, travel, study, and artistic creation. It is comprised of a series of images merging Chicago’s painting with the innovative photography of Donald Woodman, as well as works in stained glass and tapestry designed by Chicago and executed by skilled artisans. 48

Resolutions: A Stitch in Time was Judy Chicago’s last collaborative project. Begun in 1994 with skilled needle workers with whom she had worked for many years, Resolutions combines painting and needlework in a series of exquisitely crafted and inspiring images which - with an eye to the future - playfully reinterpret traditional adages and proverbs. The exhibition opened in June 2000 at the Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY, and was toured to seven venues around the United States and Canada. In 2011 and 2012, Chicago’s important contributions to southern California art were highlighted in “Pacific Standard Time”, a Getty funded initiative documenting and celebrating the region’s rich history. She was featured in eight museum exhibitions and kicked off the Getty PST Performance Festival with the restaging of two events, “Sublime Environment” (a dry ice installation) and “A Butterfly for Pomona”, the first fireworks piece Chicago had done since 1974. This reevaluation of her work has led to renewed interest around the United States and Europe. In 2014, in honor of Chicago’s 75th birthday, a series of exhibitions and events were held around the country at various institutions and galleries including the Palmer Museum at Penn State University (where there was a semester-long, campus wide celebration of Chicago’s art education archive which was acquired by the university in 2011); the National Museum of Women in the Arts; the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at the Radcliffe Institute/Harvard; Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, sponsored by Nyehaus; the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum; the New Mexico Museum of Art; David Richard Gallery in Santa Fe; and Redline in Denver. Her birthday year was capped off on April 26th when she presented, “A Butterfly for Brooklyn.” This complex pyrotechnic work in Prospect Park was attended by 12,000 people who – at the end of the performance – burst into spontaneous applause followed by singing “Happy Birthday.” In addition to a life of prodigious art making, Chicago is the author of numerous books: Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist, 1975 (subsequently published in England, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and China) and most recently made available as an ebook; The Dinner Party: A Symbol of Our Heritage, 1979; Embroidering Our Heritage: The Dinner Party Needlework, 1980 (also published in a combined edition in Germany); the Birth Project, 1985 (Anchor/Doubleday); Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light, 1993; The Dinner Party / Judy Chicago, 1996; Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist, 1996 (Viking Penguin); Fragments from the Delta of Venus, 2004 (powerHouse Books) and Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours, 2005 (Harper Design International). In 2014, Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education, was also published by The Monacelli Press. Penn State is planning to establish an on-line dialogue portal as part of Chicago’s art education archive in order to achieve the goal she outlines in this book, i.e., an international discourse about the future of art education. For over five decades, Chicago has remained steadfast in her commitment to the power of art as a vehicle for intellectual transformation and social change and to women’s right to engage in the highest level of art production. As a result, she has become a symbol for people everywhere, known and respected as an artist, writer, teacher, feminist and humanist whose work and life are models for an enlarged definition of art, an expanded role for the artist, and women’s right to freedom of expression.


Dr. Kathy Battista Biography

Kathy Battista is Director of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, New York and Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for Global Futures in Art, Design and Media at the Winchester School of Art University of Southampton. She is a writer, curator and educator. She is author of Re-negotiating the Body: Feminist Artists in 1970s London (IB Tauris, 2012), which won the Choice Book Award for 2013, and the forthcoming New York New Wave (IB Tauris 2014). She is also coauthor of Art New York (ellipsis, 2000) and Recent Architecture in The Netherlands (ellipsis, 1998). Her essays have appeared in the following edited collections: Drawings in the 21st Century: Papers on Contemporary Practice (Ashgate, 2014); Ladies and Gents: Public Toilets and Gender (Temple University Press, 2009); Arcade: Artists and Placemaking (Black Dog, 2006); Surface Tension: Supplement 1 (errant bodies, 2006) and Surface Tension: Problematics of Site (errant bodies, 2003); as well as many exhibition catalogues. Kathy is a regular contributor to art journals and publications. Recent curated exhibitions include Linea: Katie Holten and Mariatheresa Sartori, Marta Jovanovic: Republika and Shony Rivnay: Soft Corps (Bosi Gallery, New York, 2014); Syri-Arts Benefit (Beirut Exhibition Centre, 2013) Royal Academy Encounter (Katara Arts Centre, Doha, 2012). Sweethearts: Artist Couples (Houldsworth Gallery, London, 2012); She has taught at Cornell University; Birkbeck College; The London Consortium (University of London); Kings College; the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University; and Tate Modern. Kathy was previously founder of the Interaction program for the UK-based public art agency Artangel. She received a PhD and was a Postdoctoral Fellow of The London Consortium, University of London, a MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, and a BA from Fordham University.


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