Judith Bernstein
| Judith Bernstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1942 |
| Alma mater | Pennsylvania State University, Yale University (BFA, MFA) |
| Movement | Feminist art movement |
Judith Bernstein (born 1942) is a feminist artist best known for her phallic drawings and paintings.[1] During the beginning of the feminist art movement, Bernstein was a founding member of the cooperative feminist A.I.R. Gallery in New York. She has also been involved in the Guerilla Girls, Art Workers' Coalition, and Fight Censorship Group.[1][2] Her work is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, Jewish Museum, Carnegie Museum, Neuberger Museum, Migros Museum Zürich, Kunsthaus Zürich, Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, and Verbund Collection.
Personal life
Bernstein was born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey in 1942.[1][3] Her mother was a bookkeeper and her father was a teacher.[4] She learned about painting from her father who painted with his friends in their house.[4] She earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees at Pennsylvania State University before going on to earn her Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts degrees from Yale University.[4][5] At Yale, she learned that Dean Jack Tworkov would not hire female professors.[1] She realized that women needed to be taken seriously and in 1964 began making erotic art.[3]
Career
In response to the historic objectification of female bodies, Bernstein created art that objectified the male body and penis.[1][3][6] Bernstein's early art represented a powerful war-time phallus. It was influenced by both graffiti in men's bathrooms at Yale University and her view that paternalistic leadership resulted in the Vietnam War.[1] The Fun Gun (1967) is a painting of a penis shooting bullets.[1] The same year she created the Union Jack-Off series, made with charcoal and oil on paper. In it were two phalluses in the shape of an X layered above the stars of the American flag, which had the words "Jack Off on U.S Policy in Vietnam."[7] Bernstein's art was removed from the Yale's student art exhibition because it included penises.[3]
In 1969 Bernstein began to include Phallic Screws in her art, starting with Screw in the Box, which were meant to be create a feeling among men of vulnerability, powerlessness, and intimidation.[1][4] Another example is Horizontal, which was a "9x12.5" charcoal drawing on paper of a screw made in 1973.[3] That year she made Five Panel Vertical, of five panels of vertical screws, each measuring "150x 60 in.[1] She has created a name for herself in the art world, but sexism in the artworld prevented her work from being shown in galleries and museums.[4] In 1974 Horizontal was censored from the exhibition Women’s Work—American Art 1974 at the Philadelphia Civic Center. It was deemed “without redeeming social value,” and Bernstein fought to have it included in the exhibition.[3]
She helped found the A.I.R. Gallery, a women's art gallery, in 1973 in New York. She had a solo exhibition there that year.[4] In 1981 to 1984 Bernstein created charcoal drawings of Venus in sexualized shapes of an anthurium, called Anthurium Thru Venus.[3] She continued to make art of large phalluses, and in 1993 she created a painting called The Dance of large dancing penises.[8]
Because of pervasive sexism, it has been difficult to obtain exhibition engagements, and she has had a hard time gaining recognition for her art work until the 21st Century.[4] Some of her solo exhibitions include at The Mitchell Algus Gallery in New York in 2008, in Alex Zachary in New York in 2010 and in The New Museum in 2012 with an exhibition called Judith Bernstein:Hard.[9] Bernstein also had an exhibition in 2009 and 2011 at The Box in Los Angeles managed by Mara McCarthy, Paul McCarthy's daughter.[4][9] She was in a group exhibitions, including the 2010 New York exhibitions: The Comfort of Strangers at MoMA and The Last Newspaper at the New Museum. Her work was also exhibited in The Historical Box at Hauser and Wright in Zurich in 2011 and London in 2012.[9]
In 2013, 18 paintings of vaginas, representing openness and "powerfulness," were displayed in her solo show Birth of the Universe at The Box in Los Angeles.[10]
In 2014, She introduced her Birth of the Universe paintings in blacklight at Gavin Brown's Enterprise in New York City.
In 2015, Judith's solo show "Voyeur" opened at Mary Boone Gallery in New York City.
In 2016, Bernstein had two solo shows; Dick of Death at Mary Boone Gallery in New York City, and Rising at the Kunsthall Stavanger in Norway.
She lives and works in New York City.[4]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Broude, Norma; et al. (2007). Claiming Space: Some American Feminist Originators. Washington, DC.: The Katzen American University Museum College of Art and Science.
- ↑ "Judith Bernstein: HARD". New Museum. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Levin, Gail (2007). "Censorship, Politics and Sexual Imagery in the Work of Jewish-American Feminist Artists". Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues. Indiana University Press. 14 (5768): 63–96. doi:10.2979/NAS.2007.-.14.63.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Miller, H. Michael. "How to Screw Your Way to the Top: Judith Bernstein Brings Her Signature Style to the New Museum". GalleristNY. Observer.com.
- ↑ "Judith Bernstein: Biography". The Box Gallery. Retrieved December 18, 2013.
- ↑ Joan Semmel, April Kingsley (1980). "Sexual Imagery in Women's Art". Women's Art Journal. Spring-Summer. Women's Art Inc. 1 (1): 1–6. doi:10.2307/1358010.
- ↑ "Auction Result: Union Jack Off Flag by Judith Bernstein". Artnet Worldwide Corporation. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
- ↑ "Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: Feminist Art Base: Judith Bernstein". Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
- 1 2 3 "Judith Bernstein: Hard". New Exhibition Museums. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
- ↑ Mizota, Sharon. "Review: Judith Bernstein's 'Birth of the Universe' a potent force". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 21 October 2013.