Judy Chicago’s retrospective is an ode to womanhood and mother nature
Story and photo by Leila Hawkins
Photo: The Crowning, 1983. Artist: Judy Chicago
When Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party was unveiled in 1979, it was met with a mixture of praise and outrage. The era of second wave feminism—which challenged the belief that women’s sole purpose was to marry and bear children—was coming to an end, having succeeded in giving women control over their reproductive rights. The vast installation featured a triangular table with 39 place settings, each dedicated to an influential woman, including mythical and historical figures such as Sappho, Sojourner Truth and Virginia Woolf (along with a further 999 names inscribed on the floor). Chicago intricately crafted each place setting to include a china plate, ceramic cutlery, chalice and napkin, but most striking—and controversial—were the vulva-like forms on each plate. It remains her best known work.
The Dinner Party is on permanent view at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and therefore does not appear in Revelations, the retrospective of Chicago’s work currently on show at London’s Serpentine Gallery. Instead we are treated to a monumental selection from her body of work from the1960s to the present day covering female sexuality and bodily autonomy, motherhood, masculinity, climate justice and the environment, themes that have become increasingly pressing and prominent over the last six and a half decades.
Chicago’s majestic In the Beginning is placed appropriately as the first artwork visitors see when entering the gallery. The nine-meter long painting, with its vibrant outlines depicting female forms, animals and the act of giving birth, seems to pulsate with life. Throughout the exhibit we see Chicago revisiting the subject in different mediums: ink sketches, embroidery, vivid paintings and even pyrotechnics—such as her Women and Smoke series staged in the Californian desert, featuring performers who, covered in paint, engage in ritualistic practices to do with fire, which Chicago has since said was inspired by various types of immolation. A film of one of these performances, Immolation, is shown as part of this exhibition.
She has also explored masculinity, more specifically, the harms of the patriarchy on men. In the PowerPlay series she uses bold colours and outlines to draw caricaturesque male faces, contorted into disturbed expressions that show the emotional toll society places on men (for they too suffer as a result of the patriarchy, a discussion we would benefit from having more of).
Revelations takes its name from an illustrated manuscript Chicago penned in the early 1970s, unpublished until now. It is a manifesto of sorts by the artist, where she retells history incorporating the stories and achievements of women that are too often left out of textbooks, interspersed with her profound vision of creation, the divine feminine and humanity. It embodies the essence of Chicago’s life’s work, capturing her dedication to celebrating the feminine experience and honouring the deep connection between women and the natural world. Through this retrospective, she reaffirms her legacy as a trailblazing artist who challenged the male-dominated art world and continues to influence the discourse on power and gender.
Revelations is on at the Serpentine North, London, until 1 September 2024.
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