Judy Chicago

Judy Chicago, Through the Flower (series), 1972. Installation view at Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Ben Nuttall

Judy Chicago, What is Feminist Art?, 1977. Installation view at Tate Liverpool, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Ben Nuttall

Judy Chicago, Through the Flower #3, 1972. Courtesy the artist; Salon 94, New York; and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco. Photo: Donald Woodman/ARS, New York

Judy Chicago, Through the Flower #2, 1972. Courtesy the artist; Salon 94, New York; and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco. Photo: Donald Woodman/ARS, New York

Judy Chicago, Through the Flower #4, 1972. Courtesy the artist; Salon 94, New York; and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco. Photo: Donald Woodman/ARS, New York

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Judy Chicago (b. 1939, Chicago, USA) lives and works in New Mexico, USA. Chicago is a central figure of the first generation of feminist artists and the founder of the first feminist art programme in the United States. She is known for her large collaborative installation pieces about birth and creation, which examine the role of women in history and culture. Often using traditional crafts such as needlework and china-painting, her large collaborative installation works make a place for female-centred imagery, overcoming the erasure of women’s achievements in art and society. Recent exhibitions and commissions include BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, UK (2019); Brooklyn Museum, USA (2018); National Museum of Women in the Arts, USA (2017-2018); Tate Liverpool, UK (2017); and CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, France (2016).

Project Description

Judy Chicago’s series of lithographs Through the Flower No. 2-4 (1972), and What is Feminist Art? (1977), from Tate’s collection were presented at Tate Liverpool. Chicago is widely regarded as a pioneer of feminist art whose work elevates her experience as a woman artist and gives space to the work of other women. Part of Chicago’s early feminist images, her series of paintings Through the Flower (1972) and What is Feminist Art? (1977) bring together imagery depicting childbirth and growth and question the place of male aggression in art history. Imbued with the iconography and symbolism of birth cycles, these paintings are representative of an important shift in her artistic practice in the 1970s.

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