Santa Fe Retreat: Judy Chicago
Lofty Ambitions Blog, 07/23/2014


We spent eleven days in Santa Fe on our self-designed writing retreat. Take a look at PART 1 and PART 2.

Shortly after we arrived in Santa Fe, Anna leafed through a free tabloid and discovered that the visual artist Judy Chicago was giving a gallery talk at the opening of her new show at the David Richard Gallery. Anna had first come across Chicago’s work in a women’s studies class taught by Penny Gold at Knox College.

We don’t usually write about art at Lofty Ambitions, but we do when there’s a connection to science or to aviation and space exploration. The new work at the gallery demonstrates Chicago’s recent interests in the human body and especially the surface and underlying bones and muscles of the head and face. She became interested in the tradition of anatomical drawings, like those by Leonardo DaVinci. This focus rose earlier in Chicago’s work, when she made three-dimensional cast sculptures of a woman undergoing cancer treatment—that series is casually referred to as the Toby heads. The more recent work, including paintings on glass, explores the relationship of the anatomy and physiology of the face to the expression or emotion that is presented or feigned. As she put it, “I’m interested in what’s under the skin.”

The gallery talk between Chicago and art historian Kathy Battista can be viewed HERE–definitely worth the time!

This exhibit and event are part of the year-long celebration of Judy Chicago’s 75th birthday, which also includes exhibits around the country. So a few days after seeing Judy Chicago in the flesh, Anna visited the New Mexico Museum of Art to see the exhibit there and get an overview from docent Meriom Kastner. That exhibit included Grand Toby Head with Copper Eye, 2010 and also several pieces that addressed nuclear science and industry. One of the pieces in the Holocaust Project, which was part of a series that could be viewed from different angles to different effects, offered commentary on the Apollo Moon landings (see the end of this post for photographs of that piece).

So, if all you’ve seen of Judy Chicago’s work are photographs of The Dinner Party, we suggest you look again. Her range of subject matter and artistic media is amazing. When she needed to do watercolors for a project, she learned how to do watercolors. When she became interested in glass and translucency in painting–or when the watercolor medium and techniques couldn’t support her vision for a piece–she took a workshop in glasswork. She even worked with a foundry to figure out how to cast paper as a large three-dimensional sculpture.

Her new book, Institutional Time, is now on Anna’s reading list in hopes that Chicago’s critique of visual art education in universities might shed some light on creative writing education as well. In fact, Anna published a conversation essay with graphic designer Claudine Jaenichen and visual artist Lia Halloran in New Writing and is very interested in connections across different artistic fields.

Of course, we were in Santa Fe to write. And several of our recent posts have offered ways to turn our attention toward writing. Though Judy Chicago talked about visual art and her own artistic practices, much of what she said in her gallery talk applies to writing and to collaboration. Her attitude is one of adventure, of trying new things, of pushing yourself beyond what you can already do comfortably.

We share some of her words of wisdom here:

What isn’t imaged can’t become part of the cultural discourse.

New forms allow new content.

Every failure is an important success—a step in success.

I was interested in how a gesture could mean a variety of things.

I do like to play with details.

For me, art is about discovery. It’s about discovering what different techniques allow me to express.

Judy Chicago explained that Disappointed Head was inspired by a disappointed artist she knew who, in his fifties, thought getting into a particular gallery would change his life. He went into debt, got into that gallery, and nothing changed.

Finally, Judy Chicago’s comment about tattoos (and her use of tattoo-like techniques on porcelain heads) because who doesn’t wonder: I’m not doing that on my ass, I can tell you that!

Associated Artist

• Judy Chicago

Associated Exhibitions

• JUDY CHICAGO
  Heads Up
  June 14, 2014 - July 26, 2014
  MORE INFO

Associated News

• May 14, 2015
  Press Release - Judy Chicago "Heads Up"


• December 1, 2014
  Judy Chicago Dialogue Portal Part 2 launched Dec. 1
  Penn State, 12/01/2014
  Catherine Grigor
  
  


• October 30, 2014
  History Was Impetus, But It's Future Work That Drives Judy Chicago
  


• October 26, 2014
  Invitations on the Journey: Wisdom from Elders
  Patheos, 10/27/2014
  Elizabeth Nordquist
  
  


• October 23, 2014
  "Judy Chicago" at Denver's RedLine honors great American troublemaker
  The Denver Post, 10/23/2014
  Ray Mark Rinaldi
  
  


• July 24, 2014
  Santa Fe Retreat: Judy Chicago
  Lofty Ambitions Blog, 07/23/2014
  


• July 7, 2014
  Heads Up! New Works by Judy Chicago
  Artsy.net, 07/07/2014
  
  


• May 22, 2014
  Judy Chicago: Early Work at the Brooklyn Museum
  NYArts Magazine, 05/22/2014
  Anni Irish
  
  


• April 23, 2014
  Judy Chicago at the Brooklyn Museum and Environs
  Paradigm Shift, 04/23/2014
  Heather Saunders
  


• April 23, 2014
  Judy Chicago Proves She's About More Than Vagina Plates at Brooklyn Museum Show
  The Village Voice, 04/23/2014
  Lilly Lampe
  
  


• April 10, 2014
  The Breakfast That Preceded ‘The Dinner Party’ ‘Chicago in L.A.’ Focuses on Judy Chicago’s Early Work
  The New York Times, 04/10/2014
  Ken Johnson
  
  


• March 28, 2014
  Judy Chicago Celebrates 75th Birthday


• March 28, 2014
  Judy Chicago
  ArtForum, 03/28/2014
  Paige Bradley
  
  


• March 6, 2014
  Chicago on Chicago
  Harvard Gazette, 03/05/2014
  Valerie Vande Panne
  
  


• January 18, 2014
  Can Judy Chicago make D.C. her sister city?
  The Washington Post, 01/18/2014
  Philip Kennicott
  
  


• March 1, 2013
  WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH ARTISTS: CELEBRATING WHM WITH JUDY CHICAGO AS THE KING OF HEARTS
  Huffington Post, 03/01/2013
  
  


• February 16, 2013
  JUDY CHICAGO
  Woven and Stitched
  February 15 – March 23, 2013
  
  Gallery Lectures and Discussions on Tapestries and Textiles:
  Saturday, February 23, 2:00—4:00pm


• August 30, 2012
  PUSSYRIOT: WOMEN STILL A POTENT FORCE, SAYS FEMINIST ART FOUNDER JUDY CHICAGO
  International Business Times, 08/30/2012
  Gianluca Mezzofiore
  
  


• August 20, 2012
  
  A SERIES OF JUDY CHICAGO EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS IN THE UK FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1985
  ArtDaily.org, 08/20/2012
  


• August 8, 2012
  Judy Chicago: Reviewing Powerplay
  ArtInfo.com, 08/08/2012
  
  


• August 1, 2012
  
  JUDY CHICAGO: REVIEWING POWERPLAY
  THE Magazine, August 2012
  Susan Wilder
  
  


• July 12, 2012
  Interrogating Heroic-Ness – and Judy Chicago’s Cultural Powers
  Adobe Airstream, 07/12/2012
  Ellen Berkovitch
  
  


• June 16, 2012
  Press Release - Judy Chicago "ReViewing PowerPlay"


• March 3, 2012
  THE CROCKER ART MUSEUM OPENS A SURVEY OF GROUNDBREAKING ARTIST JUDY CHICAGO
  Art Knowledge News, 03/03/2012
  
  


• February 23, 2012
  THE INAUGURAL PALM SPRINGS FINE ART FAIR FEATURES MORE THAN 2,000 POST-WAR & CONTEMPORARY WORKS
  Art Knowledge News, 02/15/2012
  
  


• February 5, 2012
  Press Release - Judy Chicago "Material Girl"


• December 12, 2011
  JUDY CHICAGO TO RECEIVE THE PALM SPRINGS FINE ART FAIR'S LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
  Visual Art Source, 12/12/2011
  
  


• October 30, 2011
  Q&A: JUDY CHICAGO
  Los Angeles Times, 10/30/2011
  Jori Finkel
  
  


• October 26, 2011
  JUDY CHICAGO'S UPCOMING DISAPPEARING ENVIRONMENTS: HOW DO YOU MAKE ART OUT OF GIGANTIC PYRAMIDS OF DRY ICE? LA Weekly, 10/26/2011
  
  


• June 20, 2011
  Press Release - Artist Judy Chicago Is Now Represented by David Richard Contemporary