Description |
The Creation (from the Birth Project) 1984 Modified Aubusson tapestry Museum of Arts and Design, New York, gift of the Robert and Audrey Cowan Family Trust, 2015
‘Needlework in all its forms was “women’s work,” and as long as I was compelled to deny my identity as a woman in my life and in my work, I never considered it as a medium for art-making. It would have been humiliating to me if a male artist or dealer discovered me sewing a button on my artist husband’s shirt or sitting at the embroidery machine or a loom. It would have confirmed the already taken-for-granted idea that my place in life was either supporting my husband’s aspirations or working in the “minor arts”. [...] This is not to suggest that I believe the value judgments assigned to “art” versus “craft” are right or just, but rather to define the background of aesthetic assumptions against which I developed as an artist. If hiding my womanly feelings and eschewing all womanly skills would guarantee my participation in the art community, then that is what I would do.’ Judy Chicago, The Birth Project, 1985 |