During the first decade of Judy Chicago’s artistic production (1960s – 1970s), she used a limited formal vocabulary of geometric shapes to investigate color in paintings, drawings and sculpture. These early minimal works remained unknown for much of Chicago’s career, until new interest was stimulated by the 2002 group exhibition “A Minimal Future” at MoCA Los Angeles. This was followed by a major survey of Chicago’s early work in a 2004 solo exhibition at LewAllen Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. As Jenni Sorkin explains in a catalog essay for the exhibition, “Chicago’s content [during this phase] was about testing the limits of color through self-designed diagrams, systems and spatial patterning... [it] represents a passionate and original pursuit of the experiential nature of color, transformation and visual perception.”
Bigamy, 1964 was also born out of this period. During this time Chicago was interested in moving between two and three dimensions in her work, combining painting and sculpture. She has said that her work is strongest when there is a fusion between painting with sculpture. This acrylic on clay sculpture also represents Chicago’s interest in combining of female and male forms, phallic and yonic imagery.
