Judy Chicago: Los Angeles
Author:Lindsey ShookJeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles unveils Judy Chicago: Los Angeles, a retrospective of the vast body of work from prolific artist Judy Chicago
On display through November 2, 2019, this rare show features paintings, drawings, sculpture, installations and documentation of Chicago’s environmental and fireworks projects. Her work during that time was a direct response to the lack of support for female artists in Los Angeles coupled with the city’s spirit for ingenuity. This fueled Chicago’s freedom to explore material and subject matter. Intent on learning more about industrial techniques that were not taught at art school, Chicago enrolled in auto body painting school, the only woman out of two hundred fifty men in her class. Chicago talks about how she had to struggle to be taken seriously, and as a result “had to get tough.”
Chicago’s 1965 sculpture Rainbow Pickett was included in the legendary Primary Structures show at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1966, but the structure of the art world at the time made it difficult for a young woman to enter the art discourse. Partly in reaction to the challenge of getting her work to be taken seriously, she began her Feminist art project which changed the course of contemporary art. The impact of this project, and her immensely influential work, The Dinner Party, 1974-79, had the effect of partially eclipsing her earlier work. When several of her Los Angeles works were included in the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time exhibition program in 2011-12, it was a revelation. Since then, her Los Angeles and Fresno works have been shown at museums in Brooklyn, Nice, Chicago and Miami, but the presentation at Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles will be the first time that the full body of work from this period will be presented.
In addition to her Lifesavers and Fan paintings, the exhibition will include major sculptures such as Rainbow Pickett, Trinity, and the participatory work 10 Part Cylinders.
Save the date for May 2020, when the esteemed San Francisco gallery Jessica Silverman Gallery will host a solo show with Chicago which coincides with her retrospective at the De Young Museum. “In May 2020, we will host Judy Chicago’s second solo exhibition titled Mother Earth,” notes owner and curator Jessica Silverman. “It explores her longstanding eco-feminist interest in the environment. We are extra thrilled that our show coincides with her first comprehensive museum retrospective in the world, which will be held at the De Young here in San Francisco.”
