Judy Chicago’s first major New York museum survey, "Herstory," has opened at the New Museum, marking a triumphant return for the 84-year-old feminist icon. The exhibition features a comprehensive look at her 60-year career, including her large-scale tapestries and "Rejection" drawings, alongside a curated "show-within-a-show" titled "City of Ladies." This section integrates Chicago’s work with pieces by over 90 historic women and non-binary artists, ranging from Hilma af Klint to Hildegard of Bingen, creating a visual dialogue across centuries of female creativity.
The exhibition is significant as it challenges the traditional male-dominated art historical canon and addresses Chicago’s historically fraught relationship with the New York art world. By positioning her work within a lineage of women artists who utilized "central core imagery," the show validates Chicago’s lifelong mission to move women’s art from the margins to the center. The inclusion of rare historical manuscripts and works by obscure female figures within a contemporary art institution underscores a radical effort to rewrite art history through a feminist lens.