A retrospective celebrating the pioneering feminist artist Judy Chicago will span from her early engagement with the Californian Light and Space Movement in the 1960s to her current body of work, a searing investigation of mortality and environmental devastation, begun in 2015. The exhibition includes approximately 130 paintings, prints, drawings, and ceramic sculptures, in addition to ephemera, several films, and a documentary. Together, these works of art chart the boundary-pushing path of the artist named Cohen by birth and Gerowitz by marriage, who, after trying to fit into the patriarchal structure of the Los Angeles art world, decided to change her name and the course of history. Judy Chicago: A Retrospective will make an important contribution to scholarship on feminist art history. Chicago has long been an obsessive documenter of her own work, and the decades of archival materials, writings, and ephemera preserved at libraries from the Schlesinger at Radcliffe to the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington will inform the catalogue, making it an important source of information not just about Chicago, but about the movement of which she was a critical part; Chicago is as significant as a historical figure she is as an artist.
Judy Chicago: A Retrospective
Judy Chicago, "Driving the World to Destruction", from the series "PowerPlay", 1985. Sprayed acrylic and oil on Belgian linen, 108 x 168 in. Courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, New York; and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. © Judy Chicago / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph © Donald Woodman / ARS, NY Image provided courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Judy Chicago, Stranded, from the series "The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction", 2016. Kiln-fired glass paint on black glass, 12 x 18 in. Courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, New York; and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. © Judy Chicago / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph © Donald Woodman / ARS, NY Image provided courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Judy Chicago, Birth Hood, 1965/2011. Sprayed automotive lacquer on car hood 43 x 43 x 4 1/8 in. © Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Photo © Donald Woodman/ARS, NY Courtesy the artist; Salon 94, New York; and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco Image provided courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Judy Chicago, Rainbow Pickett, 1965 (re-created 2004). Latex paint on canvas-covered plywood 118.75 x 118.75 x 132 in. Collection of Waldman Family Charitable Trust, Mountain Center, CA © Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Photo © Donald Woodman/ARS, NY Image provided courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Judy Chicago, Through the Flower 2, 1973. Sprayed acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 in. Collection of Diane Gelon. © Judy Chicago / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph © Donald Woodman / ARS, New York Image provided courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Judy Chicago, Immolation, from the series "Women and Smoke", 1972. Fireworks performance; performed in California desert. Courtesy of the artist; Salon 94, New York; and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. © Judy Chicago / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph courtesy of Through the Flower Archives Image provided courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
We acknowledge our culture’s systemic marginalization of artists because of race, gender, religion, age, ability, sexual orientation, and/or immigration status among other factors. We actively seek to highlight the work of under-represented practitioners and support efforts to address entrenched inequities.
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts