Judy Chicago: An Interview

Judy Chicago (b.1939) creates large-scale, collaborative artwork has brought greater prominence to feminist themes and craft arts such as needlework and ceramics. Her most famous work, The Dinner Party (1979), was an enormous collaboration with hundreds of volunteers including ceramicists, china painters and needleworkers. The monumental finished piece has place settings for 39 mythical and historical famous women, writing them back into the heroic history usually reserved for men. Earlier in her career, Chicago was part of the Finish Fetish movement within Minimalism. Her notable piece Rainbow Pickett was part of the foundational Primary Structures show at the Jewish Museum. Chicago also founded the first feminist art programs at California State University-Fresno, and later (with Miriam Schapiro) at CalArts. Her other major work includes The Birth Project (1985) and The Holocaust Project (1993).

A historical interview originally recorded in 1974 and re-edited in 2005 with support from the Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Fund.