Judy Chicago: Revelations includes unseen works from a boat-rocking career

Judy Chicago, Smoke Bodies from Women and Smoke, 1971-1972; Remastered in 2016 Original Total Running Time: 25:31. Edited to 14:45 by Salon 94, NY 2017 © Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Photo courtesy of Through the Flower Archives — Judy Chicago, *Smoke Bodies* from *Women and Smoke*, 1971-1972; Remastered in 2016 Original Total Running Time: 25:31. Edited to 14:45 by Salon 94, NY 2017

(Image credit: © Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Photo courtesy of Through the Flower Archives)

Judy Chicago, American artist and feminist icon, is celebrated for her trailblazing work that provides a vision of equality, basing her six-decade career on a rooted sense of self-belief. Now, ‘Revelations’, her first major interdisciplinary, immersive exhibition at Serpentine North, dives into a world of unseen works, including a manuscript penned by Chicago in the 1970s, providing insight into what fuelled her vision of equality and spearheaded the feminist art movement that defined her career.

Serpentine North presents ‘Judy Chicago: Revelations’

Judy Chicago: Revelations, 2024. Installation view, Serpentine North. &copy; Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Jo Underhill — ‘Judy Chicago: Revelations’, 2024. Installation view, Serpentine North

The retrospective is focused on drawings, but also includes preparatory studies alongside audio, visual and new-technology materials. Throughout her career, Chicago has battled against inequality within the male-dominated landscape, and often felt the need to change how she presented herself to be taken seriously, previously telling Wallpaper*, ‘My gender kept slipping into my work, I either had to try to construct an alternative face for myself and other women, or continue to not be taken seriously.’

Judy Chicago, Woman with Liquid Smoke from Women and Smoke, 1971-1972; Remastered in 2016 Original Total Running Time: 25:31. Edited to 14:45 by Salon 94, NY 2017 &copy; Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Photo courtesy of Through the Flower Archives — Judy Chicago, *Woman with Liquid Smoke* from *Women and Smoke*, 1971-1972; Remastered in 2016 Original Total Running Time: 25:31. Edited to 14:45 by Salon 94, NY 2017

However, she continued to create work from a woman's perspective, committed to craft and experimentation, displayed through her choice of subjects and materials – including her spectacular pyrotechnic display Forever de Young, which won her a Wallpaper* Design Award for Best Firework in 2022. Her relentless self-defiance shaped her work and self-identity. ‘I just didn’t fit. I was marginalised for many decades because nobody could fit me into the narrow categories of contemporary art. When I was young, I wanted to fit in, but now I’m old I'm like, “I don’t want to fit in.”’

‘Revelations’ charts the full journey of her career. The immersive nature of this exhibition includes an AR app, a video recording booth, and other audio-visual components, setting it apart from Chicago’s previous shows. Perhaps most notable is a guided tour from Chicago of The Dinner Party (1974-79) and video interviews with its participants; the installation opened political floodgates in the art world, and left an aftermath of divided praise and criticism.

udy Chicago In the Beginning from Birth Project (detail), 1982 Prismacolor on paper 65 x 389 in. (165.1 x 988.06 cm) &copy; Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Photo &copy; Donald Woodman/ARS, NY — Judy Chicago, *In the Beginning* from *Birth Project* (detail), 1982 .Prismacolor on paper 65 x 389 in. (165.1 x 988.06 cm)

The exhibition takes its name from a manuscript Chicago authored in the early 1970s, while working on The Dinner Party, which will be published for the first time by Serpentine and Thames & Hudson. An archival gem, it unravels the work of women society sought to neglect, overturn and erase.

This retrospective delves into the artist’s visual language and themes of birth and creation, her Jewish identity, and the social construct of patriarchy and masculinity, all of which express her dedication to contesting the ‘absence and erasure of women in the Western cultural canon’.

Judy Chicago Wrestling with the Shadow for Her Life from Shadow Drawings, 1982 Prismacolor on rag paper 29 x 23 in. (73.66 x 58.42 cm) &copy; Judy Chicago/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Photo &copy; Donald Woodman/ARS, NY — Judy Chicago, *Wrestling with the Shadow for Her Life* from *Shadow Drawings*, 1982. Prismacolor on rag paper 29 x 23 in. (73.66 x 58.42 cm)

‘Judy Chicago: Revelations’ is on display at the Serpentine North from 23 May to 1 September 2024

judychicago.com

For more events see our guide to London art exhibitions to see this month

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Tianna Williams is Wallpaper’s staff writer. When she isn’t writing extensively across varying content pillars, ranging from design and architecture to travel and art, she also helps put together the daily newsletter. She enjoys speaking to emerging artists, designers and architects, writing about gorgeously designed houses and restaurants, and day-dreaming about her next travel destination.