Art Pioneer Judy Chicago Is the Feminist We All Need
Bazaar sat down with alumna Judy Chicago to discuss feminism, fame, and why a Judy Chicago Bigamy Hood towel may be just what the art world needs right now.
"Judy Chicago doesn’t mince words. “In the ’60s and ’70s, you had to paint like you were a white guy if you wanted to show your work,” says the artist, whose 1979 feminist masterpiece, The Dinner Party, features the lady bits of historical and mythical women served up on supper plates. The “vagina china,” as Chicago has been known to call it, earned her equal parts fame and derision when it was produced, with many established figures in the art world labeling it “vulgar” and “crass.” Says Chicago, “I was completely unprepared for the controversy. People are now saying I was way ahead of my time. But for many years my art was considered shit. It was devastating to be misperceived.”
Photo by Victor Demarchelier; From left: Missoni dress; Balenziaga blouse and skirt; Salvatore Ferragamo dress In recent years, Chicago’s outré version of feminist art has been enjoying something of a renaissance. In 2018, Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People of the Year. And as younger and more politically woke audiences discover her work through platforms like Instagram, the artist is finally earning the recognition she deserves for work other than The Dinner Party, which is now permanently housed at the Brooklyn Museum. “It’s confusing,” Chicago says. “I went from shit to Shinola, but my art hasn’t changed.” Her art may not have changed, but the times—and the velocity with which powerful images move around the globe—certainly have. This past September, the day after the final hearing for Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court, Chicago used Instagram to juxtapose the painting The Three Faces of Man, from her “PowerPlay” series (1982–87), with news images of three angry, sneering male government officials: Kavanaugh and Senators Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley. The resemblance was uncanny, prompting fans to call her a “visionary” with “psychic abilities.”
“It’s kind of sad that an image I painted more than 30 years ago has so much relevance today,” she says. “What does that say about how much progress we have or have not made?” And yet Chicago, who founded the first feminist art collective in 1970, is nowhere near giving up the fight. As she winds down a major survey of her work at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami and gears up for her next exhibition in June, when “The Birth Project’ from New Mexico Collections” opens at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, Bazaar sat down with the high priestess of vagina art to discuss feminism, fame, and why a Judy Chicago Bigamy Hood towel may be just what the art world needs right now."—Amy Synnott, Apr. 2, 2019
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Harpers Bazaar website.
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