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“Stranded” by Judy Chicago, 2016, kiln-fi red glass paint on black glass. “Collected” by Judy Chicago, 2016, kiln-fi red glass paint on black glass.
Feminist artist Chicago showcased at de Young
“What kind of artist am I? I’m determined to follow my own vision. I’m willing to risk everything. I’m dedicated to making a contribution–art historically, culturally and socially.” — Judy Chicago
News release
SAN FRANCISCO — The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco celebrate pioneering feminist artist Judy Chicago with the fi rst retrospective of her work. Spanning from her early engagement with the Californian Light and Space Movement in the 1960s to her most current body of work — a searing investigation of mortality and environmental devastation — the exhibition will include about 150 paintings, drawings, ceramic sculptures, prints and videos that chart the boundary-pushing path of the artist. Judy Chicago: A Retrospective, opening Aug. 28 through Jan. 9, 2022, is presented on the heels of the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote across the United States.
“Judy Chicago is an artist of exceptional foresight and consequence, who is long overdue for the deep look into her artistic output that this retrospective will provide,” said Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “I am proud to say that Judy Chicago: A Retrospective is one in a series of groundbreaking exhibitions at the de Young that pay homage to artists who have historically been undervalued based on their race or gender.”
One of the founding forces behind the 1970s feminist art movement, Chicago became widely known for her landmark installation “The Dinner Party.” The massive work shone a spotlight on women’s contributions to history. It featured table settings that honored ancient female deities such as Ishtar and Kali, historical fi gures like Hildegarde of Bingen and Sojourner Truth and artists in many mediums, from Emily Dickinson to Georgia O’Kee e. Upon its completion in 1979, after more than fi ve years of work and with contributions from dozens of volunteers, “The Dinner Party” was presented in San Francisco to large crowds and popular success and proceeded to be shown to audiences on an international tour to 15 cities in fi ve countries.
Art critics, however, responded di erently, annihilating “The Dinner Party” for its celebration of vaginal imagery and embrace of “feminine” craft. During the 1980s and 1990s, Chicago experienced a sexist and elitist backlash in which she was deemed too popular with the general public and too overtly political for the art world. Over the years, “The Dinner Party” has become recognized as one of the iconic artworks of its time and Chicago’s entire oeuvre has moved back into the limelight and into the attentions of both critics and institutions.
“If you live long enough, you never know what is going to happen. The retrospective at the de Young museum is a great opportunity for me to step out of the shadow cast by ‘The Dinner Party,’” said Chicago.
Judy Chicago: A Retrospective is the fi rst exhibition to o er a comprehensive overview of Chicago’s astonishing career. Tracing the artist’s practice back to its roots, it will reveal her unique working process — sometimes alone, other times collaborating with her husband, colleagues or a wider circle of volunteers — and the origins of the formal and conceptual strategies she has applied throughout her oeuvre. Bringing together a representative selection drawn from every major series of her work, it will also feature sketchbooks, journals and preparatory drawings that document her extensive process of research and development.
“Judy Chicago: A Retrospective will reveal the continued radicality of Chicago’s practice, both in her choice of subject matter and embrace of media traditionally excluded from the art historical canon,” said Claudia Schmuckli, curator in charge of Contemporary Art and Programming at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “To this day, her art is activist in its foundations. It is driven by the need and desire for social justice and an insistence on aesthetic strategies that don’t require knowledge of art history or critical theory to be legible, while being informed by both.”
Judy Chicago: A Retrospective will be on view Aug. 28 through Jan. 9, 2022, at the de Young museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive in San Francisco. The exhibition is organized by Claudia Schmuckli, Curator in Charge of Contemporary Art and Programming at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
“On Fire at 80,” Judy Chicago, 2019, archival inkjet print.
In Detail
Judy Chicago: A Retrospective will include a number of works that Chicago produced as a young artist in Los Angeles. Developed in response to the reigning minimalist aesthetic, painting series such as “Pasadena Lifesavers” and “Fresno Fans” and sculptures such as “Rainbow Pickett” and “Sunset Squares” demonstrate her early interest in fringe techniques. Having enrolled in auto body school to learn practices not taught at art school, Chicago produced a number of spray-painted car hoods, hung on the wall like paintings. The series’ bold, biomorphic imagery is represented in the exhibition by works such as “Birth Hood” and “Bigamy Hood.”
After decades of trying to fi t into the structure of a patriarchal society and at a time of grief for the loss of her father and her young husband, Chicago decided to change her name and history. In October 1970 she announced her chosen identity with a fullpage ad in Artforum, divesting herself of “all names imposed upon her through male social dominance.” She proceeded to found the fi rst feminist arts education program in the United States and then co-found the Feminist Studio Workshop and the Woman’s Building,
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