Judy Chicago (1939-)

“Because we are denied knowledge of our history, we are deprived of standing upon each other's shoulders and building upon each other's hard earned accomplishments. Instead we are condemned to repeat what others have done before us and thus we continually reinvent the wheel. The goal of The Dinner Party is to break this cycle.”

 

JUDY CHICAGO, is an artist, author, feminist, educator, and intellectual whose career now spans over 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 thousands of readers worldwide.

Although Chicago has been an influential teacher and prolific author, the primary focus of her career has been her studio work. 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, 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.

One of Judy Chicago’s primary goals was to overcome the erasure of women’s achievements that is symbolically expressed in The Dinner Party, her monumental history of women in Western Civilization, now permanently housed at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum. But The Dinner Party is only one work in Chicago’s prodigious career and making sure that a range of her work is available for future generations has also been an important aim. The Legacy Page is intended to help students, scholars and museums locate aspects of Chicago’s oeuvre, also, her archives, which are split between the Schlesinger Library for the History of Women in America at Radcliffe/Harvard and at Penn State University which houses the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection. Together, these institutions will make possible a comprehensive view of Chicago’s artmaking, writings and educational theories. 

http://www.judychicago.com/