Earth Birth 1983

Judy Chicago made this Earth Birth painting using acrylic on canvas. The palette is spare, yet it does so much work. The cool blues and grays give the painting a kind of nocturnal, watery feel, like a body emerging from a dream, and these blues surround the female form, giving her a surreal, almost ethereal quality. The paint application is smooth, not too thick, and this allows the light to play across the surface. It's like she's suggesting a kind of inner radiance. Look at the way the lines curve and flow, creating a sense of movement, of being pulled into the earth or pushed out into the cosmos. I can’t help but think of Georgia O’Keeffe, in the way she looked at flowers, but here, Chicago brings her own lens to the female form. There's a whole history of women artists talking to each other. It feels like this painting is part of that conversation, a conversation that’s still unfolding.