Judy Chicago: Revelations, this year’s art exhibition of the Ruhrfestspiele, showcases a pioneer of Feminist Art. Born in the United States in 1939, Judy Chicago gained prominence in the late 1960s for making work from a woman-centered perspective, which challenged the male-dominated landscape of the art world. An artistic polymath, Chicago’s work is characterised by a commitment to craft and experimentation, evident in her subject matter, methodology and choice of material. Throughout her six-decade career, Chicago has developed a distinctive visual language that contests the absence and erasure of women in the Western cultural canon. Her individual and collaborative projects address themes of women’s history; birth; masculinity; notions of power; the Holocaust; death and extinction; and a longstanding concern for climate justice.
Text: Kunsthalle Recklinghausen