Artwork Description
Judy Chicago – Peeling Back
Dimensions: 26 x 26″ framed / 20.5 x 20.5″ unframed
Year: 1974/2021
Medium: mixed media on panel
Edition: 4/10
Peeling Back is one of Judy Chicago’s most well-known images from her early Feminist period. The original rendering of Peeling Back is part of Chicago’s Rejection Quintet, in the permanent collection of SFMoMA. Chicago has revisited the Peeling Back image, as she has other of her core imagery, throughout her career in various media, to see which medium might best express the vibrancy and energy she seeks. The composition shows the central feminine circular shape, long associated with creativity and fertility, with rays of energy vibrating out from the central core. Chicago has pursued this image through drawing, printmaking, and now through layers of color and resin, which creates a profound sense of depth.
Judy Chicago’s artworks are found in the permanent collections of the world’s top museums. Gloria Steinem, upon introducing her long time friend as she was being honored by the Hammer Museum, famously said she could define art history as before and after Judy Chicago.
“Peeling Back” is one of Judy Chicago’s most iconic images, and will be featured in her 2021 exhibition “Iconic Judy Chicago,” at Turner Carroll Gallery.