Judy Chicago takes Back History
Published in conjunction with her exhibit at the National Gallery for Women's Art in Washington D.C., Judy Chicago spans the life and work of the feminist artist. Aptly compiled into a steady oeuvre of not only visual elements, but also emotive dialogue on Chicago's work, the book packs a punch. Far too often, Chicago's bold personality is made more of in the art world than her actual work, and Chicago deems this the most fatal blow of patriarchal society: erasing, or just ignoring, the historical contributions of women. So this book is published with a mission to recover what has been swept aside of Chicago's work: the early abstractions that Chicago deemed to be a product of a misogynist graduate arts program, and the writings and projects that followed.
Like her most renowned works, the book is a collaborative project involving those most intimate to Chicago's success. Viki D. Thompson Wylder is a vanguard of cultural studies, providing the book with historical context and a provocative look at the influence of Chicago's art and ideas. The publisher, Elizabeth A. Sackler, is a primary patron of Chicago and her influence as a public historian creates the general emphasis throughout the book of preserving Judy Chicago's work as an integral element in women's history. Sackler's forward is dripping with overemphasis in this regard though, immediately deeming Judy Chicago a "genius" when perhaps it would have been more convincing to subtly refer to Chicago's incredibly accomplished drawings at age 11. Thankfully short, Sackler's forward is redeemed by British art historian Edward Lucie-Smith's oddly provocative essay that compares Chicago to American Regionalist Thomas Hart Benton. Titling the essay "A Moral Vision," Lucie-Smith attempts to bridge the art historical barriers by reconciling the attitudes of the renowned misogynist (Benton) and the renowned feminist (Chicago). It seems that Lucie-Smith picks up on Chicago as a public artist, which I would have to agree with in its practical sense.
Some of the most common misunderstandings I see about Chicago's work is the claim of narcissism, which, as she mentions in the Lucy Lippard interview, is what often happens when identity politics focuses too much on the self rather than its public goals. But Chicago's work takes up the private, very domestic, women's "crafts" in order to go public with them, to show their potential as artistic devices. Instead of imbuing her work with the narcissism of oh, say, Benton, Chicago creates room for female imagery that can capture the public imagination. Although Lucie-Smith does have some strong points in regards to Chicago's desire to imprint female consciousness with a sense of a women's history, his comparison of Chicago and Benton is perhaps too far of a gap to jump at this point in history.
Lucy Lippard's interview with Judy Chicago is certainly the most intriguing section of the book, not only because of their history together as founders of '70s Feminist Art, but also because of their discussion of the current state of women's art. Chicago admits that the major problem of the '70s feminists was a tendency to universalize womanhood. To reconcile this, she calls upon the international feminist movement to move beyond the hackneyed stereotypes of the 70s.
Lippard and Chicago do an excellent job of recognizing the faults of the second wave feminist movement and create compelling arguments for overcoming these in order to allow for the growth of a third wave of feminism. For instance, the recent upsurgance of "women's groups" isn't a recent phenomenon at all. Chicago delineates that after women realized their common state of exclusion, they need a reason beyond just "an accident of birth" in order to be together, a thematic or stylistic reason to show art, to organize publicly, and engage society.
Lippard and Chicago also emphasize a need for collaboration between academic "Women's Studies" and the lived experience of the female in society; otherwise, both maintain, women are continuously conditioned against action. Chicago also notes that it is in the design of patriarchal culture to constantly decontextualize the work of women as apart from art history, as something "new" in our supposed condition of gender equality. Chicago has laboriously documented examples of women's art throughout the ages, noting the differences in imagery and content from the work of men. Without a women's history, women artists, activists, etc., try to reinvent the struggle without the education of their predecessors, suffocating the capacity of a women's movement to create full parity in institutions and the like. On that note, this book is tremendously successful in cornering two of the most influential characters in '70s art in order to reaffirm the existence, and the history, of Feminist Art.