Feminist artist remembers '70s

Judy Chicago, a renowned feminist artist and political activist, refuses to accept limits on the scope of her art or her activity. And while her talk last Tuesday for the Penn Humanities Forum was billed as a discussion and demonstration of style, the progressive message of her artwork was the focus. Eugene Narmour, the acting director of Penn Humanities Forum, introduced Chicago, addressing her controversial politics early on in the evening. "Her work has been criticized as being propaganda," he said. But "the critical reflex to relegate [Chicago's] work is ironic and... sexist." Chicago spoke to a large and lively crowd, which filled the College Hall auditorium beyond its seating capacity of several hundred. The audience was comprised of mostly community members and professors. "It's wonderful to see women my own age here," audience member Joan Abel, 61, said to Chicago after the talk. Chicago said she lamented the passing of time. "What I regret is that it's not the '70s anymore," she said. "It was a time of such hopefulness... and that hopefulness has been replaced by greed." The audience shared these sentiments. "I really appreciated what she was saying about women being erased from history, and it's a miracle that she has survived for so long in this day and age without corporate sponsorship," audience member Marian Minczer said. Those attending who were not familiar with Chicago's art -- like Amy Sarner Williams, director of development at the Clay Studio, which co-sponsored the event -- knew of "the considerable amount of controversy which surrounds her work." This controversy represented another theme of Chicago's presentation. Chicago spoke of the struggle with detractors in the art world and the right wing in government which had characterized much of her career. The American art system shunned her feminist art, hindering the showing of her most important work -- "The Dinner Game" -- which became "the piece that everybody wanted to see, and nobody wanted to show," according to Chicago. She said the critical establishment was similarly hostile -- New York reviewers consistently attacked both her artistic and her personal style with "savage and vitriolic" articles. Throughout her talk, Chicago referred to her incredible success and popularity, the empowering force of her art, the "foaming at the mouth," of the critics that signifies her continued importance. "People are surprised at how many people attend my lectures," she said, but "feminist art is still important despite going out of style." Narmour said that Chicago's wide acclaim "initiated discussion on the place of the aesthetic of the feminine in art." Chicago closed on a hopeful note, saying that "men now compose between ten and forty percent of my audiences."