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T
he Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion
Museum is honored to present this retrospective exhibi-
tion of the works of Judy Chicago, illuminating the impact
of her Eastern European roots and Jewish cultural and politi-
cally activist upbringing on the development of her identity,
values, and creativity. Organized to coincide with the perma-
nent installation of Judy Chicago’s
The Dinner Party
at the
Brooklyn Museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist
Art, this exhibition explores the biographical and personal
sources for Chicago’s oeuvre and features leading works from
private and public collections that document the evolution
of her Jewish themes. The art and archival artifacts on display
reveal how the artist’s secular Jewish upbringing was deeply
imbued with Jewish ethical values, particularly the concept
of
tikkun
(
the healing of the world) and the aspiration for
social justice in our society.
Tracing her ancestry to the Vilna Gaon in 18th century
Lithuania, Chicago’s artistic lineage goes back to her great-
grandfather, a rabbi and Talmudic scholar in Minsk, who
carved the priestly blessing hands for his synagogue’s Torah
Ark. Her mother’s immersion in Jewish secular culture en-
couraged Chicago’s development as an artist. Chicago’s femi-
nist advocacy is linked to the influence of her first-generation
American father, a labor organizer and educator, who inspired
her commitment to civil and human rights. Furthermore,
her self-liberating change of name to Judy Chicago (née
Judy Cohen, married to Gerowitz) to divest “all names
imposed upon her through male social dominance” reflects
the city-based surnames that Jews adopted after their Eman-
cipation in 19th-century Europe.
Chicago’s mission to challenge gender stereotypes and raise
awareness of the ways in which women’s creativity has been
erased, marginalized, or suppressed has spurred her engage-
ment as a pioneer of the Women’s Movement. Her explo-
ration of traditional women’s crafts harks back to earlier
generations of Jewish women’s handwork for Torah ark cur-
tains, mantles, and wimples, and other embroideries with
Hebrew characters and Jewish symbols. Her feminism has
animated her depiction of female imagery and informed her
experimentation with theater, film, and multi-media installa-
tion. An educator as well as an artist, Chicago has written
the story of women artists into the art history books that
previously omitted any inclusion of their significant contri-
butions to world culture.
The Dinner Party,
bringing together 39 great women
throughout the ages, has been seen by more than a million
viewers in six countries. This monumental work expresses
Chicago’s notion of the Passover
seder
,
with the recitation
of the history of the Exodus and its message of emancipation
at the core of her chronicle of women’s history. The names
of Jewish women of achievement that appear in the docu-
mentation sections of
The Dinner Party
Judith, Abigail,
Beruriah, Deborah, Esther, Hulda, Miriam, Zipporah,
Athaliah, Jezebel, Lilith, Maacah, Leah, Naomi, Rachel,
Rebekah, Ruth, Sarah, Gracia Mendeza, Emmy Noether,
Rachel Katznelson, Gertrude Stein, Golda Meir, Henrietta
Szold, Ida Kaminska, Nelly Sachs, Rachel Vernhagen, Han-
nah Senesh, and Hannah Arendt – make manifest the con-
tinuum of Jewish women’s experience, from biblical antiquity
to modernity, transcending time and space.
The quest for human freedom and tolerance is central to
Chicago’s eight-year-long collaboration with her husband,
photographer Donald Woodman, on the
Holocaust Project:
From Darkness into Light
.
Chicago’s emotional identification
with the Nazi destruction of European Jewry demonstrates
the vital role that contemporary artists can play in transmit-
ting Holocaust memory and fostering universal human un-
derstanding.
We are pleased to mount this exhibition as part of The
Feminist Art Project, a national consortium of cultural
institutions joining together in 2007 to promote greater
awareness of women’s cultural production and the interna-
tional impact of feminist art. It is most fitting that Judy
Chicago’s identity and creativity are being presented in the
museum of the seminary that ordained the first women rab-
bis in America and Israel. The College-Institute is commit-
ted to advancing egalitarian rights in Jewish life, practice,
and leadership, and takes pride in the largest women’s Judaic
studies faculty outside of Israel. It is our hope that Judy
Chicago’s artistic message will continue to inspire and en-
lighten visitors of all faiths for the benefit of humankind.
Jean Bloch Rosensaft
Director
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Museum
Foreword
Judith,
place setting
from
The Dinner Party
© Judy Chicago, 1979.
Photograph, 36” x 24”.
Photo © Donald Woodman