Judy Chicago
I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is one of the most pioneering and revelatory artists alive, Judy Chicago. \n\nBorn Judith Sylvia Cohen, then Judy Gerowitz, but changed it to Judy Chicago to renounce the name of her first husband to instead adopt the name of her birth city instead, Chicago has been at the forefront of art since the 1960s. Following her studies at UCLA in the 1950s, Chicago attended auto body school, as the only woman out of 250 men. It was here that she learnt to use spray guns, but instead of actually painting cars, she used these skills to formulate vaginal forms onto carhoods, as if to poke fun at her male contemporaries. \n\nIn the 1960s, she turned to Minimalism, creating block-like sculptures which she executed in exuberant colours. While her work was acclaimed, she was one of only three women (out of 51 artists) included in the landmark Jewish Museum exhibition, Primary Structures, in 1966. \n\nDuring this decade, she became increasingly aware of the lack of women artists available to her \u2013 as an undergraduate at UCLA in the late 1950s and 60s, she had taken a class titled the Intellectual History of Europe, where her professor declared that women had made zero contributions to European History \u2013 so she set herself the task of looking for it herself. As she has said \u201cthere was actually a huge amount of information if one looked for it, especially dating back to the 19th century\u2026\u201d\n\nOut of this \u2013 and turning to the importance of education \u2013 she began the first ever feminist art programme, at Fresno State College, with artist Miriam Schapiro in 1970, which, as feminist art historian, Linda Nochlin has declared, was a time when there were no women\u2019s studies, no feminist theory, no African American studies, no queer theory, no postcolonial studies. What there was ... was a seamless web of great art, often called \u201cThe Pyramids to Picasso\u201d... extolling great (male, of course) artistic achievement since the very dawn of history\u2019...\n\nIn the 1970s, Chicago created the famous Dinner Party, worked on between 1974 and 1978: a giant minimalist-like table that awards 39 women from history and mythology a \u2018seat at the table\u2019 \u2013 with the further names of 999 women in the porcelain in the middle. \n\nShe has created images of birth, death, animals, plants, that deal with an attitude entrenched in feminism towards caring for our planet, and so much more. But! The reason why we are speaking to her today is because this summer in London, Chicago will take over the Serpentine Gallery with an exhibition that corresponds to her major new book: Revelations, a project that has been unrealised for over 30 years, but is finally being published, that includes rewriting the story of creation, spotlighting the Great Mother Goddess, and a plethora of other women, and challenging the patriarchal paradigms that have always dictated how stories have been read, written, and accepted.\n\n--\n\nLINKS:\nhttps://www.serpentinegalleries.org/whats-on/judy-chicago-revelations/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwo6GyBhBwEiwAzQTmc3bNjJ0zjNj2RgMuZomrRmjd8Bhuvx6YlLjhkJ8sk0ZYIgxU_IQVmRoCEWoQAvD_BwE\nhttps://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/judy-chicago-revelations-hardcover\nhttps://judychicago.com/\nhttps://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/judy-chicago-herstory\n\n--\n\nTHIS EPISODE IS GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY THE LEVETT COLLECTION:\n\nhttps://www.famm.com/en/\nhttps://www.instagram.com/famm.mougins // https://www.merrellpublishers.com/9781858947037\n\nFollow us:\nKaty Hessel: @thegreatwomenartists / @katy.hessel\nSound editing by Nada Smiljanic\nMusic by Ben Wetherfield