Judy Chicago, in Retrospective
Museums Focus on Decades of Work by 'Feminist' Artist

Listen to the story.

Through the Flower, 1973 Collection of Elizabeth A. Sackler View full image

Detail from Three Faces of Man, 1985 Collection of Ruth Lambert and Henry S. Harrison View full image

Hypatia, 1979 View full image

Detail from Driving the World to Destruction, 1985 View full image

Oct. 11, 2002 -- In 1979, Judy Chicago was thrust onto the world stage with the success of a single art installation. The scope of that installation, "The Dinner Party," was immense. Rows of tables, covered in embroidered cloth, held ornate table settings and evocative painted ceramic plates.

The installation celebrated the life and work of 39 women -- including feminist icons Emily Dickinson, Margaret Sanger and Virginia Woolf -- and the plates at the center of each place at the table were shaped to suggest female genitalia. "It was a sort of iconic challenge, and launched a career that could not be ignored," says All Things Considered guest host Jacki Lyden.

Chicago remains an extremely prolific artist who has never lost her ability to stun critics and art lovers. She now has concurrent shows in four American cities. Lyden recently visited the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., where some of her most powerful works are on display.

The exhibit serves as a retrospective of four decades of Chicago's amazing career. There are more than 100 pieces of art on display -- paintings, ceramics, installations, mixed media and drawings. "The Dinner Party," meanwhile, is being displayed in its entirety, this time at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. "It is a striking, astonishing piece, and it hasn't lost its power over time," Lyden says.

Chicago was born Judy Cohen, and changed her name to match her place of birth. In a 2001 interview, she talked about her reputation as a "feminist" artist:

"Of course, most art museum audiences are female, but the art is not conceived with them in mind," she told art critic Lucy Lippard. "Over the years my audience has just grown and diversified, so now I feel that my audience is whoever comes with an open mind. I have a big audience among feminists, of course, but also in the gay and lesbian community, among environmentalists, animal rights people, the liberal Jewish community, needleworkers."

Other Resources

• Official Web site for Judy Chicago: Through the Flower

• Learn more about the Judy Chicago exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts Web site.

• Learn more about Chicago's famed installation, "The Dinner Party," at the Web site for the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

E-mail this Page

 

Recipient's e-mail address:	» Up to twelve addresses, separated by commas.
Your e-mail address:
Your name:
Personal message (optional, 600 characters max):
Your NPR member station:
Are you a member of your local NPR station?	Yes    No
Would you like to receive information from your local NPR member station? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes    No
Please send me updates from NPR.	Yes    No
(Information collected by NPR will be used solely for internal NPR or NPR member station purposes and only if you selected 'yes' above. See NPR's privacy policy for more information.)