thE exhibition, simply titled “Judy Chicago,” will open in May 2020 at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. The retrospective will feature more than 100 artworks spanning Chicago’s decades-long career, including her earlier paintings on car hoods and her spay-painted Minimalism. Although the artist underwent several stylistic changes over the years, her oeuvre is better known for addressing feminist themes.
Chicago rose to international stardom in 1979 with the premiere of her most famous work, “The Dinner Party,” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The monumental installation, which is largely recognised as the beacon of feminist art of the 1970s, consists of a triangular table with 39 place settings, each honoring a strong female figure from history. Although “Judy Chicago” will display elements from “The Dinner Party”, the installation will not be included in the retrospective as it is on permanent display at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
The exhibition will however examine the full breadth of Chicago’s practice, including examples of her “PowerPlay” series on masculinity that she created after the completion of her landmark “The Dinner Party.”
Among them is the large-scale painting “Driving the World to Destruction,” which depicts a muscle-bound man-god holding a steering wheel affixed to the surface of the earth. Also on show will be “The Holocaust Project: From Darkness to Light,” a collaborative project Chicago created between 1985 and 1993 with her husband Donald Woodman. The series reflects on notions of power and powerlessness, alluding to the persecution of Jews during World War II.
“Judy Chicago” will run at San Francisco’s de Young museum from May 9, 2020 through September 5, 2020. In the meantime, Chicago will unveil her latest project, “The End: A Meditation on Death and Extinction,” in September at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. The series explores human mortality and species extinction, with some works set to be included in the 2020 retrospective. – Relaxnews
