1. Judy Chicago was born on Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20,1939 and is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history and culture.
Judy Chicago was included in Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People of 2018".
Judy Chicago was born Judith Sylvia Cohen to Arthur and May Cohen in Chicago, Illinois, in 1939.
Judy Chicago's father came from a 23-generation-long lineage of rabbis, including the Lithuanian Jewish Vilna Gaon.
In 1945, while Judy Chicago was alone at home with her infant brother Ben, an FBI agent visited their house.
Judy Chicago did not come to terms with his death until she was an adult; in the early 1960s, she was hospitalized for almost a month with a bleeding ulcer.
Aged three, Judy Chicago began to draw and was sent to the Art Institute of Judy Chicago to attend classes.
Judy Chicago left school and moved in with him, for the first time having her own studio space.
Judy Chicago graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1962 and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa society.
Judy Chicago received her Master of Fine Arts from UCLA in 1964.
In 1965, Judy Chicago displayed artwork at her first solo show, at the Rolf Nelson Gallery in Los Angeles.
Judy Chicago was one of only four female artists to take part in the show.
Judy Chicago created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas.
Judy Chicago decided to change her last name to something independent of being connected to a man by marriage or heritage.
Judy Chicago was appalled that her new husband's signature approval was required to change her name legally.
Judy Chicago is considered one of the "first-generation feminist artists," a group that includes Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, and Rachel Rosenthal.
In 1970, Judy Chicago began teaching full-time at Fresno State College, hoping to teach women the skills needed to express the female perspective in their work.
All of the students and Judy Chicago contributed $25 per month to rent the space and to pay for materials.
Judy Chicago's image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.
Judy Chicago debuted her work in six countries on three continents.
Judy Chicago reached over a million people through her artwork.
Judy Chicago stated that she sought refuge from public attention by moving to a small rural community and that friends and acquaintances took on administrative support roles for her, such as opening her mail, while she threw herself into working on Embroidering Our Heritage, the book documenting the project.
Judy Chicago was inspired to create this collective work because of the lack of imagery and representation of birth in the art world.
Overlapping with Birth Project, Judy Chicago started working independently on PowerPlay in 1982: a series of large-scale paintings, drawings, cast paper reliefs and bronze reliefs.
Judy Chicago met poet Harvey Mudd, who had written an epic poem about the Holocaust.
Judy Chicago was interested in illustrating the poem, but decided to create her own work instead, using her own art, visual and written.
Judy Chicago worked alongside her husband to complete the piece, which took eight years to finish.
Judy Chicago used the Holocaust as a prism through which to explore victimization, oppression, injustice, and human cruelty.
Judy Chicago brought other issues into the work, such as environmentalism, Native American genocide, and the Vietnam War.
In 1994, Judy Chicago started the series Resolutions: A Stitch in Time, completed over a six-year period.
In 1999, Judy Chicago received the UCLA Alumni Professional Achievement Award, and was awarded honorary degrees from Lehigh University, Smith College, Duke University and Russell Sage College.
Judy Chicago was named a National Women's History Project honoree for Women's History Month in 2008.
Judy Chicago donated her collection of feminist art educational materials to Penn State University.
Judy Chicago had two solo exhibitions in the United Kingdom in 2012, one in London and another in Liverpool.
Once a peripheral part of her artistic expression, Judy Chicago now considers writing to be well integrated into her career.
Judy Chicago's work was included in the 2021 exhibition Women in Abstraction at the Centre Pompidou.
Judy Chicago strives to push herself, exploring new directions for her art; early in her career, she attended car-body school to learn to air-brush and has expanded her practice to include a variety of media including glass.
Judy Chicago's archives are held at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, and her collection of women's history and culture books are held in the collection of the University of New Mexico.
Judy Chicago drew inspiration from the 'ordinary' woman, a central focus of the early 1970s feminist movement.
Judy Chicago trained herself in "macho arts", taking classes in auto body work, boat-building and pyrotechnics.
Judy Chicago added the skill of stained glass to her artistic tool belt, which she used for The Holocaust Project.
Judy Chicago makes a point to acknowledge her assistants as collaborators, a task at which other artists have notably failed.
In 1978 Judy Chicago founded Through the Flower, a non-profit feminist art organization.
Judy Chicago wanted her students to grow into their art professions without having to sacrifice what womanhood meant to them.
Judy Chicago developed an art education methodology in which "female-centered content", such as menstruation and giving birth, is encouraged by the teacher as "personal is political" content for art.
Several students involved in Judy Chicago's teaching projects established successful careers as artists, including Suzanne Lacy, Faith Wilding, and Nancy Youdelman.