The Flowering: The Autobiography of Judy Chicago

In this provocative and resonant autobiography, world-renowned artist and feminist icon Judy Chicago reflects on her extraordinary life and career

Judy Chicago is America’s most dynamic living artist. Her works comprise a dizzying array of media from performance and installation, including the glittering table laid for thirty-nine iconic women in The Dinner Party (permanently housed at the Brooklyn Museum), to textile arts in the groundbreaking Birth Project, painting and stained-glass work in the meticulously researched Holocaust Project, sculpture in the contemplative The End, and her latest genre-defying pyrotechnic smoke sculptures captured on an app or livestreamed across the globe.

Chicago is also an author, teacher, feminist and activist, and far from dividing the focus of her work these identities are integral to her work as an artist, driving her efforts to achieve what has been a lifelong aim: a more just and equitable world for all beings. Written on the eve of her first-ever career retrospective at the age of eighty-two, after decades on the margins of the art world, which devalued her work for its feminist content, The Flowering is an answer to and reflection upon her previous autobiographical writings, as well as a critically necessary update to her story of resilience. It will be a call to action for those who have supported her from the beginning and for a new generation.

'Judy Chicago's 'The Flowering' is the update to her autobiographical writings we urgently need. It recasts Judy's pioneering sensibility for the important debates of our times, ensuring her pivotal place in the discourse of feminism and art'
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries

'This inspiring read tells the story of one of our most influential contemporary artists: a woman who was able to break the barrier of a male-dominated, chauvinistic system by revealing to the world what feminine creativity can produce. The imperative now lies in transforming this message into a reality for tomorrow'
Maria Grazia Chiuri, Creative Director of Women’s Collections, Dior

'Now, we need Judy Chicago more than ever'
Gloria Steinem

'Combining engrossing, urgent storytelling with illustrations, personal images and a foreword by Gloria Steinem, Chicago relays the story of an artist determined to ensure that women’s cultural achievements are permanently valued'
TIME