The flowering : the autobiography of Judy Chicago

The flowering The autobiography of Judy Chicago

Judy Chicago, 1939-

Book - 2021

"Judy Chicago is America's most dynamic living artist. Her works comprise a dizzying array of media from performance and installation to the glittering table laid for thirty-nine iconic women in The Dinner Party (now permanently housed at the Brooklyn Museum), the groundbreaking Birth Project, and the meticulously researched Holocaust Project. She designed the monumental installation for Dior's 2020 Paris couture show and, in 2019, established the Judy Chicago Portal, which will help to accomplish her lifelong goal of overcoming the erasure that has eclipsed the achievements of so many women. The Flowering is her vivid and revealing autobiography, fully illustrated with photographs of her work, as well as never-before-publish...ed personal images and a foreword by Gloria Steinem. Chicago has revised and updated her earlier, classic works with previously untold stories, fresh insights, and an extensive afterword covering the last twenty years. This powerful narrative weaves together the stories behind some of Chicago's most significant artworks and her journey as a woman artist with the chronicles of her personal relationships and her understanding, from decades of experience and extensive research, of how misogyny, racism, and other prejudices intersect to erase the legacies of artists who are not white and male while dismissing the suffering of millions of creatures who share the planet. With the first career retrospective of her work forthcoming at the de Young Museum in 2021, Chicago reinforces her message of resilience for a new generation of artists and activists. The Flowering is an essential read for anyone interested in making change."--Publisher's description.

Saved in:
Place a Hold Save to List Email this

2nd Floor Show me where

709.2/Chicago
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor 709.2/Chicago Checked In
Subjects
Chicago, Judy, > 1939-
Women artists > United States > Biography.
Artists > United States > Biography.
Feminists > United States > Biography.
Autobiographies.
Genres
Autobiographies
Published
New York, New York : London : Thames & Hudson Inc 2021.
Language
English
Main Author
Judy Chicago, 1939- (author)
Other Authors
Gloria Steinem (writer of foreword)
Item Description
Includes index.
Physical Description
vii, 408 pages : illustrations (chiefly colour) ; 25 cm
ISBN
9780500094389
  • Foreword
  • Introduction
  • Coming of Age
  • Making a Professional Life
  • Becoming Judy Chicago
  • Creating Feminist Art
  • Learning from the Past
  • Back to L.A. and Womanhouse
  • Dreaming up the Dimmer Party
  • Controversy? What Controversy?
  • Giving Birth to the Birth Project
  • Is There an Alternative to the Art World?
  • Expanding My Gaze
  • If You Don't Have, You Can't Lose
  • Why the Holocaust?
  • The Dimmer Party Goes to Congress
  • Lost in Albuquerque! Found in Belen?
  • Afterword
  • Endnotes
  • Index
  • Acknowledgments
Review by Choice Review

Judy Chicago's detailed autobiography is the definitive telling of her personal life and studio practice. The book is chronological, starting with her birth in 1939 and continuing into the present. In changing her name from Gerowitz to Chicago as part of a 1970 show announcement, the artist clearly established herself as a trailblazer. Feminist art was new then, and Chicago organized some of the first courses, programs, and projects involving women. As Chicago states, her iconic installation The Dinner Party (1974--79) "celebrates women's sexuality, history, and crafts." She tackled other topics, many controversial, including the birthing process, the Holocaust, and women artists. The range of materials and techniques she has used over the course of her career include auto spray paint, ceramics, needlework, watercolors, and pyrotechnics. A brief foreword by Gloria Steinem sets the book's tone. Illustrations include her major works through the years along with some personal photographs. Chicago changed the way people look at the work of women artists. This autobiography, which includes the highlights and the low points of her life and career, demonstrates her determination and persistence, which are truly inspirational. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. --Anna Calluori Holcombe, University of Florida

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review

As an artistically precocious girl, the future self-named Judy Chicago acquired a "lifelong passion for social justice" and the belief that "the purpose of life was to make a difference." Her melding of art and social responsibility made her a star with the public and a punching bag for the art world. As disciplined, innovative, and ardent as Chicago has been on her quest for truth, artistic expression, and consciousness-raising, she has been assailed by loss, lies, and viciousness. In her third candidly analytical memoir, following Through the Flower (1975) and Beyond the Flower (1996), Chicago, now in her triumphant eighties, charts the evolution of her radical, conceptually and technically complicated art, from her early minimalist yet nuanced paintings to her bold launching of feminist art with the vehemently controversial The Dinner Party, followed by the Birth Project, each involving elaborate collaborations with numerous volunteers. Courageous, audacious, outspoken, indefatigable, and creative, Chicago has addressed such tragic realities as the Holocaust and extinction in monumental series meant to awaken, provoke, and inspire. Her dramatic life and extensive and intrepid body of work deserve close attention.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A new autobiographical work from the renowned American feminist artist. Chicago (b. 1939) explores her life and career from the perspective of a female artist in a male-dominated art world. In addition to countless personal and professional details, this book also includes vivid full-color photographs of her work and a foreword by Gloria Steinem, who writes that Chicago "spent her life not only inventing Feminist Art, but inventing a feminist way of creating art." The author opens with details of her early childhood, attributing her strong sense of self to her father's encouragement and interactions with her. Initially, Chicago's matter-of-fact tone and self-praising comments make her words feel cold. However, as she begins discussing her time spent teaching the Feminist Art Program at Fresno State College, aimed to empower future female artists, her tone warms, and her passionate personality emerges. Like many women artists, Chicago's experiences have taught her that she has to fight marginalization in the art world. As she chronicles her rise in an arena controlled by men, she also explores the genesis of the works that stemmed from those experiences. The author shows how her art was often received poorly, seemingly due to her depictions of the female experience and form in a graphic manner. She explains many of her major works, including The Dinner Party, the Birth Project, and the Holocaust Project, the challenges she faced during the creation of each, and the reception each received. Fortunately, as Chicago notes, the public perception of her work has shifted with time; she was recently named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. Additionally, works of hers that were once criticized or dismissed are finding new and receptive audiences. Overall, Chicago's narrative speaks to the power of persistence and remaining true to yourself, especially important in the art world. An unapologetic examination of the life of an artist dedicated to following her passions. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Similar Items