Judy Chicago (b. 1939) is a world-renowned American artist and preeminent figure of the Feminist Art movement of the 1970s. Throughout her six-decade career, she has contested the absence and erasure of women in the Western cultural cannon.
Throughout her career, Chicago has challenged the (male-dominated) art world by creatively addressing issues of femininity, historical oppression, and power structures. Chicago is also notable for her embrace / elevation of unconventional, craft or "feminine" materials such as needlepoint, embroidery and smoke.
Chicago's best-known work, "The Dinner Party" is an icon of feminist art and a major accomplishment in installation. It debuted to much fanfare and controversy in 1979. The massive installation featured thirty-nine place settings replete with highly-abstracted vaginal imagery on elaborate ceramic plates set on a triangular table. Each setting honors a historical or mythological woman of significance who has been marginalized or overlooked.
Chicago's has unflinchingly addressed women's issues throughout her career--her work resonating still today. Her notable Birth Project consisted of a collaboration with 150 needleworkers in creating over 80 monumental images that depicted and celebrated various aspects of the birth process. From mythical, magical moments to painful ones, the series celebrates birth-giving capacity as it uses the process as a metaphor for creation, and confronts the lack of representation of childbirth throughout art history.
During this same period, Chicago created several works on paper relating to the Birth Project--some directly, and some through parallel projects. The imagery in "Birth Trinity" is based off a massive, 10-foot long needlepoint work from the original Birth Project (Birth Trinity: Needlepoint 1, 1983), which took two years to complete. See additional examples of screenprints from the Birth Project portfolio here.
In this powerful image, three figures merge as ripples emphasize their positions and radiate into the blank of the page. The mother sits in the middle, her body mid-birth and anchoring all other elements in place. The term "trinity" is often associated with Christianity, and it's likely that in using it in the title, the artist is implying a greatness to the act of birth that rivals its religious significance.
The central women transcends her experience, her power expansive and palpable through dazzling, psychedelically-coloured ripples. Chicago captures the cosmic rush and dynamic energy of birth and motherhood, conveying the raw vulnerability of life forces. This print is a beautifully executed powerful message, and part of an important historical moment from a feminist icon.
This piece is represented in numerous public collections such as The Brooklyn Museum, The Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney), and the New Mexico Museum of Art.
Today, Chicago remains more relevant and in demand than ever. In 2020 she was commissioned to present the Dior Haute Couture presentation. She has been the subject of major retrospectives at the Serpentine Gallery, London (2024); the New Museum in New York (2023); the de Young Museum, San Francisco (2019); the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (2018); the Brooklyn Museum (2018); and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington (2017).
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"Birth Trinity"
USA, 1985
Serigraph on Stonehenge Natural White paper
Signed "Judy Chicago," dated "1985," titled "Birth Trinity," and numbered "6/75" by the artist in pencil, bottom edge
From an edition of 75
30"H 40"W (work)
33"H 43"W (framed)
Very good condition.
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