NMWA presents Judy Chicago, on view through January 5, 2003. Chicago’s career spans nearly 40 years. In the NMWA exhibition, over 90 works as well as documentary photographs, many taken by her husband photographer Donald Woodman, chronicle important periods, significant projects, and her transformation as an artist.

Judy Chicago is an artistic trailblazer. Founder of the first feminist art program in the United States in 1970, she is the creator of one of the most influential artworks of the late 20th century, The Dinner Party (1979). At a time when women artists had few role models and even fewer opportunities for recognition and success, Chicago looked to her foremothers for inspiration and began to explore identity and other issues from a woman’s perspective.

Chicago’s anti-elitist departures from dominant styles, her mix of craft techniques and exuberant color, and, above all, her willingness to deal with contested content, from gender discrimination to the Holocaust to ethics have helped to expand the boundaries of accepted artistic expression, liberating not only women but artists working outside the dominant Western aesthetic around the globe.

Moreover, she wrestled with the meaning of terms such as “fine art,” “masterpiece,” and “artistic genius.” She sought new respect for craft media traditionally seen as women’s arts by developing her own skills in china painting and needlework and collaborated with other makers in her projects. Like artists of her generation-including Miriam Schapiro, Rachel Rosenthal, Harmony Hammond, Faith Ringgold, Carolee Schneeman, May Stevens, Mary Beth Edelson, and Joyce Kozloff—her feminist sensibility helped precipitate a momentous redirection of contemporary art in America.

Judy Chicago, on view at NMWA through January 5, 2003, is made possible through the generous support of The Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation. Additional program support is provided by Mary Ross Taylor and Virginia B. Galtney, Martha Smiley, Jane Hickie, and NMWA’s North Carolina State Committee. Coinciding with NMWA’s exhibition, Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party is on view at the Brooklyn Museum of Art through February 9, 2003. This gift to the Brooklyn Museum of Art from The Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation will be permanently installed in 2004.