Judy Chicago, Feminist Artist and Art Collaborator

Judy Chicago, Feminist Artist and Art Collaborator   Judy Chicago is known for her  feminist art installations, including The Dinner Party: A Symbol of Our Heritage,  The Birth Project,  and  Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light. Also known for feminist art critique and education. She was born on July 20, 1939.   Early Years Born Judy Sylvia Cohen in the city of Chicago, her father was a union organizer and her mother a medical secretary.   She earned her B.A. in 1962 and M.A. in 1964 at the University of California. Her first marriage in 1961 was to Jerry Gerowitz, who died in 1965.   Art Career She was part of a modernist and minimalist trend in the art movement.   She began to be more political and especially feminist in her work. In 1969, she began an art class for women at Fresno State. That same year, she formally changed her name to Chicago, leaving behind her birth name and her first married name.In 1970, she married Lloyd Hamrol. She moved over the next year to the California Institute of Arts where she worked to begin a Feminist Art Program.   This project was the source of Womanhouse, an art installation that transformed a fixer-upper house into a feminist message. She worked with  Miriam Schapiro  on this project.  Womanhouse combined the efforts of female artists learning traditionally male skills to renovate the house, and then using traditionally female skills in the art and participating in feminist consciousness-raising. The Dinner Party Remembering the words of a history professor at UCLA that women were not influences in European intellectual history, she began working on a major art project to remember women’s achievements. The Dinner Party, which took from 1974 to 1979 to complete, honored hundreds of women through history. The main part of the project was a triangular dinner table with 39 place settings each representing a female figure from history. Another 999 women have their names written on the floor of the installation on porcelain tiles. Using ceramics, embroidery, quilting, and weaving, she deliberately chose media often identified with women and treated as less than art.   She used many artists to actualize the work. The Dinner Party was exhibited in 1979, then toured and was seen by 15 million. The work challenged many who saw it to continue to learn about the unfamiliar names they encountered in the art work. While working on the installation, she published her autobiography in 1975.   She divorced in 1979. The Birth Project Judy Chicago’s next major project centered around images of women giving birth, honoring pregnancy, childbirth, and mothering.   She engaged 150 women artists creating panels for the installation, again using traditional women’s crafting, especially embroidery, with weaving, crochet, needlepoint, and other methods.   By picking both a woman-centered topic, and women’s traditional crafts, and using a cooperative model for creating the work, she embodied feminism in the project. The Holocaust Project Again working in a democratic manner, organizing and overseeing the work but decentralizing the tasks, she began work in 1984 on another installation, this one to focus on the experience of the Jewish Holocaust from the perspective of her experience as a woman and Jew. She traveled extensively in the Middle East and Europe to research for the work and to record her personal reactions to what she found.   The â€Å"incredibly dark† project took her eight years. She married photographer Donald Woodman in 1985. She published Beyond the Flower, a second part to her own life story. Later Work In 1994, she began another decentralized project. Resolutions for the Millennium joined oil painting and needlework.   The work celebrated seven values: Family, Responsibility, Conservation, Tolerance, Human Rights, Hope, and Change. In 1999, she began teaching again, moving each semester to a new setting. She wrote another book, this with Lucie-Smith, on the images of women in art. The Dinner Party was in storage from the early 1980s, except for one display in 1996.   In 1990, the University of the District of Columbia developed plans to install the work there, and Judy Chicago donated the work to the university. But newspaper articles about the sexual explicitness of the art led the trustees to cancel the installation. In 2007 The Dinner Party was permanently installed at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Books by Judy Chicago Through the Flower: My Struggle as a Woman Artist,  (autobiography), introduction by Anais Nin, 1975, 1982, 1993.  The Dinner Party: A Symbol of Our Heritage,   1979,  The Dinner Party: Restoring Women to History, 2014.Embroidering Our Heritage: The Dinner Party Needlework,  1980.The Complete Dinner Party: The Dinner Party and Embroidering Our Heritage,1981.The Birth Project,  1985.Holocaust Project: From Darkness into Light,  1993.Beyond the Flower: The Autobiography of a Feminist Artist,  1996.(With Edward Lucie-Smith)  Women and Art: Contested Territory,   1999.Fragments from the Delta of Venus,  2004.Kitty City: A Feline Book of Hours,   2005.(With Frances Borzello)  Frida Kahlo: Face to Face,   2010.Institutional Time: A Critique of Studio Art Education,   2014. Selected Judy Chicago Quotations Because we are denied knowledge of our history, we are deprived of standing upon each others shoulders and building upon each others hard earned accomplishments. Instead we are condemned to repeat what others have done before us and thus we continually reinvent the wheel. The goal of The Dinner Party is to break this cycle. I believe in art that is connected to real human feeling, that extends itself beyond the limits of the art world to embrace all people who are striving for alternatives in an increasingly dehumanized world. I am trying to make art that relates to the deepest and most mythic concerns of human kind and I believe that, at this moment of history, feminism is humanism.   About The Birth Project:  These values were oppositional in that they challenged many prevailing ideas as to what art was to be about (female rather than male experience), how it was to be made (in an empowering, co-operative method rather than a competitive, individualistic mode) and what materials were to be employed in creating it (any that seemed appropriate, irrespective of what socially constructed gender associations a particular media might be perceived to have).   About The Holocaust Project:  A lot of survivors committed suicide. Then you must make a choiceare you going to succumb to the darkness or choose life? Its a Jewish mandate to choose life. You shouldnt have to justify your work. I began to wonder about the ethical distinction between processing pigs and doing the same thing to people defined as pigs. Many would argue that moral considerations do not have to be extended to animals, but this is just what the Nazis said about the Jews.   Andrea Neal, editorial writer (October 14, 1999):  Judy Chicago is obviously more exhibitionist than artist. And that raises a question: is this what a great public university should support?

USS Missouri (BB-63) in World War II

USS Missouri (BB-63) in World War II Ordered on June 20, 1940,  USS  Missouri  (BB-63) was the fourth ship of the  Iowa-class of battleships.   USS Missouri (BB-63) - Overview Nation: United StatesType: BattleshipShipyard: New York Navy YardLaid Down: January 6, 1941Launched: January 29, 1944Commissioned: June 11, 1944Fate: Museum Ship at Pearl Harbor, HI Specifications Displacement: 45,000 tonsLength: 887 ft., 3 in.Beam: 108 ft. 2 in.Draft: 28 ft. 11 in.Speed: 33 knotsComplement: 2,700 men Armament (1944) Guns 9 x 16 in. (406 mm) 50 cal. Mark 7 guns (3 turrets of 3 guns each)20 Ãâ€" 5 in. (127 mm) 38 cal. Mark 12 guns80 x 40 mm 56 cal. anti-aircraft guns49 x 20 mm 70 cal. anti-aircraft guns Design Construction Intended as fast battleships capable of serving as escorts for the new Essex-class aircraft carriers then being designed, the Iowas were longer and faster than the earlier North Carolina and South Dakota-classes. Laid down at the New York Navy Yard on January 6, 1941, work on Missouri proceeded through the early years of World War II. As the importance of aircraft carriers increased, the US Navy shifted its building priorities to those Essex-class ships then under construction. As a result, Missouri was not launched until January 29, 1944. Christened by Margaret Truman, the daughter of then-Senator Harry Truman of Missouri, the ship moved to the fitting out piers for completion. Missouris armament centered on nine Mark 7 16 guns which were mounted in three triple turrets. These were supplemented by 20 5 guns, 80 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns, and 49 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns. Completed by mid-1944, the battleship was commissioned on June 11 with Captain William M. Callaghan in command. It was the last battleship commissioned by the US Navy. Joining the Fleet Steaming out of New York, Missouri completed its sea trials and then conducted battle training in the Chesapeake Bay. This done, the battleship departed Norfolk on November 11, 1944, and, after a stop in San Francisco to be fitted out as a fleet flagship, arrived at Pearl Harbor on December 24. Assigned to Vice Admiral Marc Mitschers Task Force 58, Missouri soon departed for Ulithi where it was attached to the screening force for the carrier USS Lexington (CV-16). In February 1945, Missouri sailed with TF58 when it began launching air strikes against the Japanese home islands. Turning south, the battleship arrived off Iwo Jima where it provided direct fire support for the landings on February 19. Re-assigned to protect USS Yorktown (CV-10), Missouri and TF58 returned to the waters off Japan in early March where the battleship downed four Japanese aircraft. Later that month, Missouri struck at targets on Okinawa in support of Allied operations on the island. While offshore, the ship was struck by a Japanese kamikaze, however, the damage inflicted was largely superficial. Transferred to Admiral William Bull Halseys Third Fleet, Missouri became the admirals flagship on May 18. Japanese Surrender Moving north, the battleship again struck targets on Okinawa before Halseys ships shifted their attention to Kyushu, Japan. Enduring a typhoon, Third Fleet spent June and July hitting targets across Japan, with aircraft striking the Inland Sea and the surface ships bombarding shore targets. With the surrender of Japan, Missouri entered Tokyo Bay with other Allied ships on August 29. Selected to host the surrender ceremony, Allied commanders, led by Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz and General Douglas MacArthur received the Japanese delegation aboard Missouri on September 2, 1945. Postwar With the surrender concluded, Halsey transferred his flag to South Dakota and Missouri was ordered to aid in bringing home American servicemen as part of Operation Magic Carpet. Completing this mission, the ship transited the Panama Canal and took part in Navy Day celebrations in New York where it was boarded by President Harry S. Truman. Following a brief refit in early 1946, the ship undertook a goodwill tour of the Mediterranean before sailing to Rio de Janeiro in August 1947, to bring the Truman family back to the US after the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Hemisphere Peace and Security. Korean War At Trumans personal request, the battleship was not deactivated along with the other Iowa-class ships as a part of the postwar downsizing of the navy. Following a grounding incident in 1950, Missouri was sent to the Far East to aid United Nations troops in Korea. Fulfilling a shore bombardment role, the battleship also aided in screening US carriers in the area. In December 1950, Missouri moved into position to provide naval gunfire support during the evacuation of Hungnam. Returning to the US for a refit in early 1951, it resumed its duties off Korea in October 1952. After five months in the war zone, Missouri sailed for Norfolk. In the summer of 1953, the battleship served as the flagship for the US Naval Academys midshipman training cruise. Sailing to Lisbon and Cherbourg, the voyage was the only time the four Iowa-class battleships cruised together. Reactivation Modernization Upon its return, Missouri was prepared for mothballs and was placed in storage at Bremerton, WA in February 1955. In the 1980s, the ship and its sisters received new life as part of the Reagan Administrations 600-ship navy initiative. Recalled from the reserve fleet, Missouri underwent a massive overhaul which saw the installation of four MK 141 quad cell missile launchers, eight Armored Box Launchers for Tomahawk cruise missiles, and four Phalanx CIWS guns. In addition, the ship was fitted with the latest electronics and combat control systems. The ship was formally recommissioned on May 10, 1986, at San Francisco, CA. Gulf War The next year, it traveled to the Persian Gulf to aid in Operation Earnest Will where it escorted re-flagged Kuwaiti oil tankers through the Straits of Hormuz. After several routine assignments, the ship returned to the Middle East in January 1991 and played an active role in Operation Desert Storm. Arriving in the Persian Gulf on January 3, Missouri joined coalition naval forces. With the beginning of Operation Desert Storm on January 17, the battleship commenced launching Tomahawk cruise missiles at Iraqi targets. Twelve days later, Missouri moved inshore and used its 16 guns to shell an Iraqi command and control facility near the Saudi Arabia-Kuwait border. Over the next several days,  the battleship, along with its sister, USS Wisconsin (BB-64) attacked Iraqi beach defenses as well as targets near Khafji. Moving north on February 23, Missouri continued striking targets ashore as part of the coalition amphibious feint against the Kuwaiti coast.   In the course of the operation, the Iraqis fired two HY-2 Silkworm missiles at the battleship, neither of which found their target. As military operations ashore moved out of range of Missouris guns, the battleship commenced patrolling the northern Persian Gulf. Remaining on station through the armistice of February 28, it finally departed the region on March 21.   Following stops in Australia, Missouri arrived at Pearl Harbor the following month and played a role in the ceremonies honoring the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack that December. Final Days With the conclusion of the Cold War and the end of the threat posed by the Soviet Union, Missouri was decommissioned at Long Beach, CA on March 31, 1992. Returned to Bremerton, the battleship was struck from the Naval Vessel Register three years later. Though groups in Puget Sound desired to keep Missouri there as a museum ship, the US Navy elected to have the battleship placed in Pearl Harbor where it would serve as a symbol of the end of World War II. Towed to Hawaii in 1998, it was moored next to Ford Island and the remains of USS Arizona (BB-39). A year later, Missouri it opened as a museum ship. Sources Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: USS MissouriBattleship Missouri MemorialHistorynet: USS Missouri