JUDY CHICAGO

ARTSIT:

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Judy Chicago was born on July 20,
1939, in Chicago,
Illinois.

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From 1980 until 1985
Judy created ‘The Birth
Project’. The piece used images of childbirth to celebrate woman's role as mother.
Finally, two years of preparation, The
Dinner Party exhibition opened to in 1970’s was the public on 13th when she
September 1981. because famous for her artwork.

In 2007 ‘The Dinner
Party’ was put into a museum in brooklyn, which was judy’s life long dream.

1935 1940 1945 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015

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In 1974 Judy started looking into the subject of women's history, which is why she decided to create her most well-known work, The
Dinner Party, which came out between 1974 and 1979.

the dinner party was put into an exhibition in 1996.
The Holocaust Project:
From Darkness Into
Light was in October
1993 Spertus Museum,
Chicago. After that she kept on traveling all around the state till
2002.

BY DIANNE TSITOURAS

JUDY CHICAGO
ARTWORK:

Dear Diary, I have just finished the creation of my latest artwork ‘The Dinner Party’ after 6 years of trying to get it just how i had imagined it, in my head, the final product is finally finished. The whole artwork cost 250, 000 dollars with 39 plates and table sets around the triangle representing 39 women and the names of 999 other historical women are engraved on the floor. It took time to research many women in our history from ancient to modern as we had to look into each one to see if they had made a statement in our history. We ranged from Names of goddesses, mythological figures, religious figures, government leaders, writers, artists, musicians and actors. Each side of the triangle is 48 feet long.

When i first started its was much too difficult to work by myself with such a big task at my hands as i would never be able to finish it. My intentions was to reveal women’s history in my artwork, at first i thought of creating abstract portraits on a canvas of historical women using sprayed acrylic. It was working out as i had hoped so i wanted to explore my options which is when i decided to go up the Northwest coast of America. I hadn’t found anything that inspired me until i entered a shop with an exquisite porcelain plate which was hand painted.

Soon after i starting taking a china painting courses which took 2 years to complete as you needed to understand the basics before you went onto the detailed parts of the course. In 1974 i continued all my courses as well as starting to study women's history once again where the image of a butterfly intrigued me which is my symbol of liberation. I started working on all types of plates with different patterns when i asked for help from Leonard Skuro as i didn't have as much ceramic skills as he did.

I wanted to have the table representing ancient women who had an inspiration to me and had made a mark in history, as well has having it set of a porcelain floor. A woman named Diane
Gelon started working for me and susan hill also as she had heard of my plan and been inspired by my book ‘Through the Flower’, she ended up helping with the embroidery of the project. As months went past my concept became much more developed and many people came to help even with research and photography. There was a much large number of people that insisted in helping, that i made teams and with each team had a leader. I remember quite clearly those Thursdays that i would hold a meeting where we could gather ideas, make suggestions and openly talk about any kinds of problems we might be having. It was quit a challenging job for all of us to put together as each tile was hand sanded and casted at a china boutique and the floor itself took over two years to be completed.

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I could definitely say that it was the most difficult and time consuming piece of work that i have ever made, though looking at the final product and the understanding the meaning behind every minuscule