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The Flowering: The Autobiography of Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago
What The Reviewers Say
Positive
The New York Journal of Books
... feels hurried, especially the last 200 or so pages in which the author describes her travels to Canada, Europe, Japan, and beyond. The pace can be dizzying. In her defense one might say that since this is her third autobiography, she has not had to conduct much research ... is nothing if not surprising, sometimes in disconcerting ways. Chicago often explains that she can't remember why she did something, and that her life often didn't turn out as she hoped and expected it would. For all her worldliness, she exhibits a surprising degree of naiveté ... She can occasionally be brilliant ... illuminating, irritating, flawed, informative, and a valuable teaching device for young artists, both men and women ... By describing her own journey, Chicago offers an unglamorous view of the life of an artist who became famous as well as infamous and who often didn't have enough money to live, but who always went back to her study to make more work. In that sense, Steinem is right. Judy Chicago is a miracle.
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Positive
The Washington Post
... intimate ... revealing account of an artist of grit and gumption who set the pattern for much of the art being made today.
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Positive
The National Museum of Women in the Arts
[Chicago's] writing moves fluidly between accounts of her personal life, her artistic endeavors and struggles, and the evolution of her feminism into a feminist art practice ... In many ways, this book seeks to reveal Judy Chicago the human, behind the icon.
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Positive
Booklist
... candidly analytical ... Courageous, audacious, outspoken, indefatigable, and creative, Chicago has addressed such tragic realities as the Holocaust and extinction in monumental series meant to awaken, provoke, and inspire. Her dramatic life and extensive and intrepid body of work deserve close attention
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