Artist Judy Chicago sees the world through colored lenses. Literally – sometimes lilac, sometimes pink, many shades of blue – but never the standard clear.
“Actually, the world doesn’t look any different when you wear these,” the artist shares via Zoom from her studio in New Mexico (the current shades are a deep shade of purple-navy blue). “I’ve worn glasses all my life and since color is the hallmark of my work, this just made sense.”
Chicago sits in front of the photo of her sky-and-smoke sculpture “Atmospheres,” which was part of her 2021 show at the de Young Museum in San Francisco as we talk. This week, her solo retrospective called “Judy Chicago: Her Story” opened at the New Museum in New York City. It’s three floors dedicated to the artist’s six-decade, multi-medium, always colorful career — one she describes as filled with “gratuitous beauty.”
“For most of my life, I had the standard feminist view of fashion, beauty and makeup,” says Chicago. “I thought it was oppressive to women. But my whole thinking changed quite dramatically as a result of my collaboration with Dior.”
In 2019, Chicago began a collaboration with Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, who brought to life an unrealized project of hers from the 1970s called The feminine divine (2020) for the Spring 2020 Couture show. “I remember during my first couture show I thought, ‘If I’m a serious artist, what should I do with couture?’” But Chiuri’s continued focus on women (“her history of hiring female photographers and women around the world to support them”) who helped Chicago find its place and discover that art, fashion and beauty not only all intersect, but actually belong together.
“When I was young, I didn’t have a beauty routine,” says Chicago. “I’ve never thought about it! All I focused on was working in my studio, sometimes up to 60 hours a week. But the older you get, it becomes more a matter of taking things back to the way they were. Patch, patch, patch.”
Chicago’s current routine consists of skincare from Biodroga, Yon-Ka and Dermalogica, spritzes of iconic Dior products. Poison perfumeAnd MAC’s matte lipstick in the color Smoked Purple. “Now that I’m old, lipstick is essential, it makes me feel radiant.”
In her exhibition at the New Museum, Chicago continues to ask an important question The feminine divine –“What if women ruled the world?” – and declares whether they want a dash of this or a swipe of that, so be it.
