Tuesday, 7 September, Linda Loveland Reid drove to SF with Osha and me to visit the Judy Chicago show at the DeYoung, and to meet my friend Sue.

Dianne and Osha join me on nice September day

Sue had come up from Santa Monica and met us at the entrance to the exhibit. Sue had visited some of Judy Chicago’s Southern California art buildings back in their heyday.

I am joined by Sue, Osha, Dianne, and LLR

The show was unusual because Judy Chicago had persuaded the (excellent) curator to show it as a true retrospective — newest work first, working back to her earliest work. It was staggeringly clear how hard Judy Chicago worked to be taken seriously by the museum-level art world and how difficult the male-dominated art establishment made her life. The range of her work and materials is impressive and the newest stuff is the best. Here are a few pieces I found especially moving.

Her most famous piece “Dinner Party” is permanently installed in Brooklyn, but there was a film and some examples of the challenges they faced getting the immense project completed and displayed. I saw it in L.A. at the Hammer Museum with Sasha Ferrer who gave me the catalog book as a gift which I cherish to this day.