JUDY CHICAGO

Born in 1939, Judy Chicago is considered one of the foremost feminist artists. Pioneering during a time when women artists were largely sidelined, she is still committed to the power of art as a vehicle for intellectual transformation and social change. She is respected as an artist 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. In 1970, she chose the last name ‘Chicago’ as a declaration of independence, announcing with a full-page ad in Artforum that she was divesting “herself of all names imposed upon her through male social dominance.”

Chicago explores a variety of media and often works with materials that have been considered “women’s craft” such as ceramics, weaving, and needlepoint. Her early engagement with the Californian Light and Space Movement in the 1960s influenced her signature geometric floral pieces, abstractions of glowing color, which represent the physical forms of women. The resulting works, her series Through the Flower, investigate representations of femininity and womanhood, the foundations of her artistic practice.