Judy Chicago Is Still A Revolutionary

For the first post I decided to check out a gallery. Galleries generally have websites. Back when I had my gallery Eich Space in Tribeca, I was attracted to Deitch Projects, partly because of the similarity in name. Now years later Deitch has the website Jeffrey Deitch. For my first phygital visual art review his website is an excellent place to begin.

First, what I love is that Deitch's website is an experience. I will say that I don't share the same aesthetic taste as Deitch even when we had galleries in the same town, but I fully appreciate how his vision is conveyed right at the landing page. With a very intricate piece of animated art continuously scrolling by in an ongoing transformation—the website is art in motion.

There is a lot to see on this gallery website. Everything is clearly organized and easy to surf. Interested in Los Angeles, New York, Special Projects, Online Gallery, Archive, or learning more about Deitch himself, you are just one click away. 

In my original visit I surfed a little in all the categories, but was most interested in the "Online Gallery." In that section (current to this post) there are three exhibitions. The one that caught my eye is Judy Chicago: What if Women Ruled the World. (To enter this area of the website one must give their email. This is not surprising as I imagine Deitch is tracking who is checking out these online gallery exhibitions.)

Having entered the exhibition the layout is easy to navigate. The opening section has a full image of the gallery installation plus it's possible to click through a few more gallery installation views of this exhibit. Then the images are followed by text that was very easy to read with an excellent overview of the Herstory of the artwork and a contextualization of who Judy Chicago is as an artist. 

Chicago is a feminist artist icon. Her work The Dinner Party—now on permanent display in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center For Feminist Art on the 4th floor of the Brooklyn Museum—sent shock waves through the art world in the mid to late 1970s. She influenced a generation of women artists, me included. To see her current work now at 80 years old highlighted at Jeffrey Deitch's gallery shows her ongoing relevance as she continues to create new Herstory.

Next there is a video of Chicago discussing her work and how the original art installation was part of "a[n] historic collaboration between Chicago and Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for the Spring/Summer 2020 haute couture collection...the centerpiece of Dior’s runway presentation at the gardens of The Musée Rodin in Paris in January 2020." For me, I found the video very inspiring and when I finished I checked out Chicago's own artist website.

Following the video, the studies for the banners, which are sized at 32 x 24.5 inches (framed) are for sale and have a statement by Chicago next to them. The viewer can click on each study to see it in a larger view. The price point is staggering, but considering the magnitude of Chicago—who at this point in her career is very much a part of the American feminist contemporary art pantheon—the prices are completely appropriate. I also liked that if one was a buyer the clarity of price, materials, and size was very much in line with the ubiquitous price list at most galleries

Continuing beyond the studies for sale, there is another video and more text about how the banners were made. A key component of the installation and collaboration between Chiuri and Chicago is highlighted in the video that shows the link of empowering women in Mumbai, India in the creation of the monumental banners.

As this is a review I will admit to being intimidated when considering a feminist icon and a gallery of Jeffrey Deitch's caliber. First, consider what is a gallery? Galleries are in the business of selling art and promoting artists, which will hopefully turn into future sales. And I also believe gallerists love art and spend a great deal of energy promoting art beyond just monetary transactions. Gallerists and artists have a symbiotic relationship that can span many years as appears to be the case with Chicago and Deitch. 

There were a few things missing for me though regarding a phygital experience and the business of selling art. The banners with embroidered questions are not provocative in and of themselves except in relation to their monumental size and the Dior collaboration of having the banners hanging inside a feminine shaped building where the Dior fashion show was held. The opening short video does not convey well enough the experience of the space where the banners were originally hung. 

The second opportunity to give scale to the banners is in the opening gallery pictures. But here also the scale is lost as there is no human element in which the viewer can translate the grandness of the banners against the self. As a possible buyer looking online to understand what the fuss is about—looking at the studies does not evoke the experience of the banners. The questions Chicago is posing about what the world would look like "...if women ruled the world?" takes on an incredible significance for the psychological loudness of the questions due to their size and original location of hanging in a building designed in the shape of the goddess.

The significance of the size of the banners falls in line with the work of Georgia O'Keeffe. I remember viewing the Red Poppy many years ago and finally understanding the politics of O'Keeffe's desire to show the infinitesimal—what that truly meant for the viewer. The painting is not large, but the poppy fills the space totally in such a way as to explode from the canvas. Chicago's banners with simple questions become urgent when the viewer feels the intensity of scale of what those questions mean for society. 

Is it possible to convey that intensity in a phygital experience? Yes, but the old rules must be broken about having art in an esthetic white space that does not naturally convey scale. The other point I would make is that this online exhibition would do well to link back to the Los Angeles section of the website where an exhibition of Chicago's work from 1965-72 was shown in the fall of 2019. And here I believe the opportunity to educate the potential buyer and other viewers is essential. Developing buyers no matter the price point, is to open the backroom and contextualize for the viewer who an artist is—in reference to a gallery aesthetic and in relation to the artist's other work. Linking back to the earlier Los Angeles exhibition would do this.

Creating a phygital experience that attracts viewers and possible buyers needs to reconsider that many of the "professional" rules used to show art in galleries may need to be abandoned: namely not having a human element in exhibition photos. If one reviews how this might look I suggest reviewing the evolution of Sunset magazine covers. The human figure on the cover has gone in and out of vogue—though now people are back. This can be attributed to the design sensibility of the current generation creating the magazine. Scale and the human element make viewing digital material more accessible. Many people are not reading Sunset magazine in the print format just as many people due to the pandemic are not physically walking into galleries. 

It should be noted that there are images on the internet that address the issues I presented with the Judy Chicago online exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch's website, but my goal in this reviewing process is to highlight what creates an excellent phygital experience for the viewer from a specific online location connected to a gallery or museum.

Creating a phygital gallery experience would invite more looky-loos online (who may turn into buyers). But a thoughtful phygital experience would hopefully attract younger serious buyers also. Both are a part of the fun and business of selling art.

Note: From my discovery that The Dinner Party is on permanent display at the Brooklyn Museum, in a future post I will explore and review this exhibition also.