Judy Ledgerwood (born 1959) is an American abstract painter and educator, who has been based in Chicago.Waspe, Roland, and Philip Vanderhyden ''Judy Ledgerwood'' Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2009. Retrieved August 19, 2019. Her work confronts fundamental, historical and contemporary issues in abstract painting within a largely high-modernist vocabulary that she often complicates and subverts.Yau, John "Judy Ledgerwood’s Blunt Celebrations of Female Sexuality," ''Hyperallergic'', April 29, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2019.Adcock, Craig. ''Cold Days: Judy Ledgerwood'', Chicago: The Renaissance Society, 1999.Snodgrass, Susan. "Review of Exhibitions: Chicago," ''Art in America'', April 1992, p. 166–7. Ledgerwood stages traditionally feminine-coded elements—cosmetic and décor-related colors, references to ornamental and craft traditions—on a scale associated with so-called "heroic" abstraction; critics suggest her work enacts an upending or "domestication" of
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
male authority that opens the tradition to allusions to female sexuality, design, glamour and pop culture.Smith, Roberta "Judy Ledgerwood: 'April Showers'," ''The New York Times'', June 24, 2011, p. C29. Retrieved August 20, 2019.Sherlock, Maureen P. "The Land Before Her," ''Judy Ledgerwood'' (catalogue), Chicago: Feigen Inc., 1993.Walker, Hamza. "Fox in the Snow," Exhibition essay, "Judy Ledgerwood: Cold Days," Chicago: Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago Newsletter, January 1999. Critic
John Yau
John Yau (born June 5, 1950) is an American poet and critic who lives in New York City. He received his B.A. from Bard College in 1972 and his M.F.A. from Brooklyn College in 1978. He has published over 50 books of poetry, artists' books, fiction ...
writes, "In Ledgerwood’s paintings the viewer encounters elements of humor, instances of surprise, celebrations of female sexuality, forms of vulgar tactility, and intense and unpredictable combinations of color. There is nothing formulaic about her approach."Yau, John "Sexual Abstraction: Judy Ledgerwood’s Recent Paintings," ''The Brooklyn Rail'', May 15, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
Ledgerwood has exhibited widely at galleries throughout the United States and in Europe and at institutions including the
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art art gallery, museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one ...
,Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. "The Wall Projects Series," Exhibition materials, 1996. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
Smart Museum of Art
The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art is an art museum located on the campus of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The permanent collection has over 15,000 objects. Admission is free and open to the general public.
The Smart Muse ...
Renaissance Society
The Renaissance Society, founded in 1915, is a leading independent contemporary art museum located on the campus of the University of Chicago, with a focus on the commissioning and production of new works by international artists. The kunsthalle- ...
.Ledgerwood, Judy. J''udy Ledgerwood: Cold Days'', Chicago: Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago Newsletter, January 1999. Her work belongs to the public art collections of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's o ...
, Art Institute of Chicago,Art Institute of Chicago "Judy Ledgerwood" Artists. Retrieved August 20, 2019. and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago,Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago "Judy Ledgerwood" Artists. Retrieved August 20, 2019. among others; a monograph, ''Judy Ledgerwood'', was published in 2009 by
Hatje Cantz
Hatje Cantz Verlag (English: Hatje Cantz Publishing) is a German book publisher specialising in photography, art, architecture and design. It was established in 1945 by Gerd HatjeGrabner, Michelle. ''ON PTG'', Manawa, WI: Poor Farm Press, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2019. Ledgerwood lives and works in the Chicago area with her husband, artist Tony Tasset, and teaches at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
.Yood, James. "Collaborations 1998: Printworks Gallery," ''Artforum'', February 1999, p. 10.Northwestern University "Judy Ledgerwood, Alice Welsh Skilling Professor of Art" Faculty, Art, Theory and Practice. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
Life and career
Ledgerwood was born in 1959 in the small farming community of
Brazil, Indiana
Brazil is a city in Clay County, Indiana, United States. The population was 7,912 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Clay County. It is part of the Terre Haute Metropolitan Statistical Area. The current chief executive of Brazil ...
and identified as an artist from an early age.Renaissance Society. ''Why Paint?: Judy Ledgerwood, Jim Lutes, Kay Rosen, Kevin Wolff'', Chicago: The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, 1992.Ledgerwood, Judy. "Speakeasy," ''New Art Examiner'', January 1996, p. 14–5.Mettam, Laura M "Artist Insights: Judy Ledgerwood," ''Chicago Gallery News'', May 5, 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2019. Her Midwest upbringing informed the sense of space and light in her early landscape-related work and her later use of craft and decorative forms relates to being from, in her words, a "family of quilters."Barcio, Phillip "Judy Ledgerwood on Finding Pattern and Decoration in Everyday Life," ''Hyperallergic'', May 17, 2018. Retrieved August 19, 2019. Ledgerwood attended the
Art Academy of Cincinnati
The Art Academy of Cincinnati is a private college of art and design in Cincinnati, Ohio, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. It was founded as the McMicken School of Design in 1869, and was a department of the U ...
(BFA, 1982), where she met her future husband, artist Tony Tasset.Connors, Thomas. "Off the Wall," ''Modern Luxury'', July 1, 2018, pp. 64–8. After graduating, she enrolled at the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which grew into the museum and ...
(SAIC), attracted by that city's balance of affordability, available large studio spaces, and connection to the larger art world.Kirshner, Judith Russi. "Conversation with Julia Fish and Judy Ledgerwood, ''Art in Chicago: A History from the Fire to Now'' Ed. Taft, Maggie and Robert Cozzolino, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2018, p. 330–4. At SAIC, she studied under artists
Christina Ramberg
Christina Ramberg (21 August 1946–1995) was an American painter associated with the Chicago Imagists, a group of representational artists who attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the late 1960s. The Imagists took their cues from ...
and
Phil Hanson
Phil Hanson (born October 3, 1932) is a former member of the Arizona House of Representatives from January 2001 until January 2005. He was first elected to the House in November 2000, representing District 17, and was re-elected in 2002 after re- ...
, among others, earning an MFA in 1984.Ghez, Susanne. "Judy Ledgerwood Interview, ''Judy Ledgerwood'' Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2009. Retrieved August 19, 2019.
Ledgerwood was part of a conceptually oriented group of Chicago artists that embraced theory and a global, rather than regional, view of the art world, distinguishing them from the earlier
Chicago Imagists The Chicago Imagists are a group of representational artists associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center in the late 1960s.
Their work was known for grotesquerie, Surrealism and complete ind ...
.Kirshner, Judith Russi. "Resisting Regionalism, ''Art in Chicago 1945-1995'' Lynne Warren, et al (editors), Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996, p. 137. Retrieved May 1, 2018.Kirshner, Judith Russi. "Conversation with Kay Rosen and Tony Tasset," ''Art in Chicago: A History from the Fire to Now'', Ed. Taft, Maggie and Robert Cozzolino, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2018, p. 314–9. She began exhibiting professionally in group shows at galleries such as
Randolph Street
Randolph Street is a street in Chicago. It runs east–west through the Chicago Loop, carrying westbound traffic west from Michigan Avenue across the Chicago River on the Randolph Street Bridge, interchanging with the Kennedy Expressway (I-90/ I- ...
and Feature in 1987–8; solo efforts at Scott Hanson Gallery (New York, 1989) and Robbin Lockett Gallery (Chicago, 1989–92) soon followed.Artner, Alan G. "Catalogue is best part of 'nonspiritual'," ''Chicago Tribune'', June 11, 1987, Sec. 5 p. 11E. In 1993, she began her teaching career at SAIC; she joined the Department of Art, Theory and Practice at Northwestern University in 1995, and was tenured in 2002. She has served as the department's Director of Graduate Studies and is the Alice Welsh Skilling Professor of Art. Ledgerwood has continued to exhibit widely, at galleries including Häusler Contemporary (Munich/Zurich, 2005–19), Tracy Williams Ltd. (New York, 2005–16),
1301PE
1301PE is a gallery in Los Angeles founded by Brian D. Butler in 1992.
Brain Multiples
Butler began Brain Multiples in 1991 to finance, edit, publish and distribute artists’ editions. Rather than representing artists, Butler collaborated with ...
(Los Angeles, 2002–19), Rhona Hoffman (Chicago, 2000–18), Feigen, Inc. (Chicago/New York, 1993–2000), and Barbara Davis (Houston, 2013–9).
Work and reception
Ledgerwood emerged in the 1980s during a
postmodern
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
crisis of faith in painting's relevance, viability, patriarchal conceits, and commodification by the art market—issues her work addresses through a range of formal and feminist-critical strategies.Hixson, Kathryn. "Chicago in Review," ''Arts'', April 1989, p.108.Ghez, Susanne. ''Cold Days: Judy Ledgerwood'', Chicago: The Renaissance Society, 1999. Her early work investigated gender issues encoded in 19th-century landscape painting and mid-20th-century
Abstract Expressionism
Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...
through formal choices informed by being female.Hixson, Kathryn. "Speakeasy," ''New Art Examiner'', January 1996, p. 14–5. Her later work has shifted toward less referential, more direct abstraction focused on structure, light, color, decorative motifs, and physical presence and experience; it directly or indirectly references antecedents including
Op Art
Op art, short for optical art, is a style of visual art that uses optical illusions.
Op artworks are abstract, with many better-known pieces created in black and white. Typically, they give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images ...
,
Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...
,
Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...
, and the
Pattern and Decoration
Pattern and Decoration was a United States art movement from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s. The movement has sometimes been referred to as "P&D"
or as The New Decorativeness. The movement was championed by the gallery owner Holly Solomon. The ...
movement.Waspe, Roland. "The Instant Joy of Painting, ''Judy Ledgerwood'' Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2009. Retrieved August 19, 2019. Critics identify as central to her work: transgressive use of color as a vehicle for content and critique; imposing scale; attention to spatial relationships between picture plane and edge and surrounding physical space; freely painted, shifting motifs of patterned basic shapes; an emphasis on performative and material aspects of painting; a
phenomenological
Phenomenology may refer to:
Art
* Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties
Philosophy
* Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...
embrace of tenuousness and optical effects regarding the viewing experience.Pagel, David. "Why Paint?" ''Why Paint?: Judy Ledgerwood, Jim Lutes, Kay Rosen, Kevin Wolff'', Chicago: The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, 1992.
Landscape-related abstraction (1988–1993)
Critic Kathryn Hixson described Ledgerwood's early paintings as cunningly painted "commodity object of seemingly inspired, moody, atmospheric space" appropriated from the sublime traditions of
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
(
J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...
,
Albert Pinkham Ryder
Albert Pinkham Ryder (March 19, 1847 – March 28, 1917) was an American painter best known for his poetic and moody allegorical works and seascapes, as well as his eccentric personality. While his art shared an emphasis on subtle variations of ...
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Latv ...
,
Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense o ...
), rather than inspired by nature.Hixson, Kathryn. "Cool, Conceptual, Controversial," ''New Art Examiner'', May 1988, p. 30–33. Largely monochromatic and monumental, they featured nearly uniform oil and encaustic surfaces that hovered between enveloping abstraction and irregular fields barely suggesting landscape (e.g., ''Composition in Pink, Brown and Violet'' or ''Summer Fog'', 1992),Art Institute of Chicago "''Summer Fog'', 1992, Judy Ledgerwood" Artworks. Retrieved August 20, 2019. with occasional insertions of small, flat rectangles that blurred distinctions further.Rice, Nancy. "'New Realism' Show Is Real, But Not New," ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', May 22, 1988. Sec. p. 4C.Hixson, Kathryn. "Chicago in Review," ''Arts'', December 1990, p.107-8.Kirshner, Judith Russi. "A Narrative of Women’s Experience," ''Art Criticism'', Vol. 6, No. 1, 1990, p. 20–31. While traditional reviewers were sometimes less attuned to Ledgerwood's conceptual intent,Artner, Alan G. "Judy Ledgerwood," ''Chicago Tribune'', January 17, 1992, Sec.7, p .66.Diehl, Carol. "Judy Ledgerwood/Germans van Eck,” ''ARTnews'', Summer 1993, p.178. others identified in her articulation of differences a subversion of conventional equations of sublime with masculine, and beauty with feminine.Bonesteel, Michael. "Medium Cool: New Chicago Abstraction," ''Art in America'', December 1987, p.138–47. Maureen Sherlock suggested that Ledgerwood's canvasses restaged domestic, "demure and private gestures" in powerful, public form through their highly charged synthetic colors (pinks, roses, reds), which evoked female domains (cosmetics, the body, interior design), and intimate markmaking (dabs, finger-painting), which deflated the mythic power and profundity of Abstract-Expressionist gesture.
David Pagel
David Pagel is an American art critic, educator, curator, dioramatist and bike enthusiast.
Contemporary art criticism
Since 1991, Pagel has been a regular contributor to the ''Los Angeles Times.'' He is a professor of art theory and history at C ...
described the work as orchestrating a "double-sided viewing" that "surreptitiously traced the power of American abstraction back to nature" and played havoc with simplistic oppositions such as abstract/representational, pure paint/illusionism, culture/nature.
Circular-motif abstraction (1993–2002)
In the early 1990s, Ledgerwood transitioned toward patterned abstraction with directly drawn, sharper-edged circular forms that suggested shimmering light (e.g., ''Blackness Light'', 1992;Art Institute of Chicago "''Blackness Light'', 1992, Judy Ledgerwood" Artworks. Retrieved August 20, 2019. ''Rainlight'', 1993) and increasingly delved into the experience of perception. This work employed monochromatic or limited palettes and dissolving grid arrangements of dots, circles or loops, creating complex, flat plays of oscillating color, tone, surface finish and figure-ground based on light conditions, viewer position and retinal effects; critics suggest that this indeterminacy introduces elements of extended time, discovery, and "unknowability" into the viewing experience.Yood, James. "Post-hypnotic: University Galleries of Illinois State University," ''Artforum'', April 1999, p. 120.Ledgerwood, Judy. In ''ON PTG'', Michelle Grabner (ed,), Manawa, WI: Poor Farm Press, 2012. Retrieved August 19, 2019. Ledgerwood explored this motif in various color palettes, combining blacks with pinks, purples, magentas and ultramarine (e.g., ''Tranquilizer'', 1997; ''Basement Love'', 1999) in a series exploring sexuality, and yellows on silver and white in another, Op-Art-like series.Byrd, Cathy. "Eye-popping aesthetic: Dots, stripes and squiggles vibrate at ACA and Swan Coach House Galleries," ''Atlanta Creative Loafing'', February 12, 2000, p. 37–38.Hawkins, Margaret. "Exhibit shows why Op is on top," ''Chicago Sun-Times'', May 3, 2000, p. 52.Horodner, Stuart. "Flat mates," ''Surface'', Summer 2000, p. 72–73. One of the latter works (the 17' x 35' ''Groovin' on Lemon'', 1995) comprised half of a temporary, site-specific installation commissioned for the new MCA Chicago building, which Ledgerwood described as "a meditation on light and rhythm."Carr, Christopher. "A grand reopening: The new MCA connects art and life," ''MOSAIC'', Northwestern University, Fall 1996, p. 4-5.Artner, Alan G. "Bigger not Better," ''Chicago Tribune'', June 30, 1996, Sec 7, p. 12. The adjacent, same-sized companion, ''Groovin' on Violet'', fully emerged only after a viewer's eyes adjusted, replicating the afterimage formed from viewing the other work.
In 1999, Ledgerwood presented "Cold Days", a body of work specifically created to interact with the changing winter light that would flood its January exhibition at Chicago's Renaissance Society.Artner, Alan G. "Judy Ledgerwood’s new works interact with winter light," ''Chicago Tribune'', February 5, 1999, Sec. 7, p. 53. The show's centerpiece was a wall of five, 8' x 9' works painted in subtly modulating lilacs, pastel blues, greens, browns and metallic silvers that functioned as an environment. Bearing titles drawn from
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
's ''
Kind of Blue
''Kind of Blue'' is a studio album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 2 and April 22, 1959, at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City, and released on August 17 of that year by Co ...
'' album, the paintings opened to a wide range of allusions, from pop culture, fashion and design to the glamour and effervescence of champagne bubbles to climate (brittle temperatures, the sheen of ice, winter light, whiteouts) and states of contemplation.Wilk, Deborah. "Judy Ledgerwood," ''New Art Examiner'', April 1999, p. 44–45.Walker, Hamza. "The Weeds of Winter," Exhibition materials, "Judy Ledgerwood: Cold Days," Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago Newsletter, 1999. Critics compared the work's myriad shifts between obscurity and clarity to those of the
Rothko Chapel
The Rothko Chapel is a wiktionary:nondenominational, non-denominational chapel in Houston, Texas, founded by John de Ménil, John and Dominique de Menil. The interior serves not only as a chapel, but also as a major work of modern art: on its wal ...
and
Light and Space
Light and Space denotes a loosely affiliated art movement related to op art, minimalism and geometric abstraction originating in Southern California in the 1960s and influenced by John McLaughlin (artist), John McLaughlin. It is characterized by ...
installations of Robert Irwin. Craig Adcock wrote that the paintings resided "between being and nonbeing, just between the abyss inside and the boundless horizon outside. The operative category is the sublime, shorn of its macho,
Kantian
Kantianism is the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). The term ''Kantianism'' or ''Kantian'' is sometimes also used to describe contemporary positions in philosophy of mind, ...
implications." In 2002, Ledgerwood created a comparable body of work for exhibition in Los Angeles, titled "Sunny Days" (1301PE, 2002).
Patterned abstraction and wall paintings (2002– )
Ledgerwood's later work shifted toward repeated vernacular motifs (chevron and diamond,
quatrefoil
A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...
, and floral patterns) and a more confrontational approach embracing discordant color, an integration of painting and drawing, and greater co-optation of architectural space, including that between painting and viewer.Grabner, Michelle. "Judy Ledgerwood," ''art US'', January–February, 2004, p. 18.Snodgrass, Susan. "Judy Ledgerwood at Rhona Hoffman Gallery," ''Art In America'', January 2004, p. 110.Johnson, Ken "Judy Ledgerwood: 'Spring Fever'," ''The New York Times'', May 27, 2005, p. E23. Retrieved August 20, 2019.Dennis, Suzanne. "A Feast for the Eyes," ''South China Morning Post'', December 28, 2003.Fyfe, Joe, "Judy Ledgerwood at Tracy Williams," ''Art in America'', October 2007, p. 216.
Michelle Grabner
Michelle Grabner (born 1962 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin) is an artist, curator, and critic based in Wisconsin. She is the Crown Family Professor of Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she has taught since 1996. She has curated sever ...
suggested this new work laid "bare Ledgerwood's distrust of elegance and finesse" with its contemporary, doodle-like drawing, loose Pop and quilt-like patterns, Matissean flatness, and funky interior-design palettes.Orden, Abraham "Circus Without a Tent,” ''Artnet'', February 11, 2005. Retrieved August 20, 2019. ''New York Times'' critic Ken Johnson described later works in this vein as "paradoxical fusions of actuality and virtuality" painted with "the carefree abandon of an improvising jazz musician."Johnson, Ken " Judy Ledgerwood," ''The New York Times'', June 17, 2016. Retrieved August 20, 2019. He and others noted Ledgerwood's use of irregular white-bordered edges suggesting drooping, bowed tapestries or quilts pinned to walls (e.g., ''Grandma's Flower Garden'', 2006, above)—a reference to traditionally feminine arts—which combined with her overt decorative forms and de-stabilized grids to upend high-modernist conceits of seriousness.
Other critics, such as John Yau and
Roberta Smith
Roberta Smith (born 1948) is co-chief art critic of ''The New York Times'' and a lecturer on contemporary art. She is the first woman to hold that position.
Early life
Born in 1948 in New York City and raised in Lawrence, Kansas. Smith studied at ...
, have focused on an anarchic element in the work, which foregrounds imperfection and irregularity, process and messiness, humor and female sexuality, and challenges notions of the sublime and beautiful.Yau, John "Judy Ledgerwood 'April Showers': Tracy Williams," ''The Brooklyn Rail'', June 2011, p.52. Retrieved August 19, 2019. Ledgerwood has written that a 2003 health scare prompted a reconsideration and shift in direction in her work, initially signaled—in title and form—in her show, "Ugly Beauty" (2004).Ledgerwood, Judy. "Judy Ledgerwood's Top Ten of 2003," ''Coterie'', February 2004. Writers suggest that show's off-kilter diamond-patterned grids, unbalanced color interactions, and perspectival shifts posited a modernism reoriented toward fragility and an ungainly, lifelike mortality.1301PE "Judy Ledgerwood: Ugly Beauty," Exhibitions. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
Ledgerwood has frequently extended this work into architectural space, as she did in the public commission ''Jour et Nuite'' (Paris Metro RATP Station, 2007) and two solo shows—"Hard Jam" (Tracy Williams Ltd., New York, 2007) and "Chromatic Patterns" (Hausler Contemporary, Zürich, 2008)—that featured monumental paintings and site-specific wall painting installations. In the exhibitions, she created progressions of accumulating motifs and bands of color, with single works building to painted environments that assimilated interior architectural elements and replicated being inside a painting. Ledgerwood created variations on ''Chromatic Patterns'' in immense, site-specific installations at the Smart Museum of Art (2013–5),
Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts
The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts is a 501(c)3 non-profit that “fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. The Graham realize ...
(2014)''ArtDaily'' "Judy Ledgerwood: Chromatic Patterns for the Graham Foundation," ''ArtDaily'', January 2014. and Art Institute of Chicago (2018).Zetouni, Sigalit. "Constructing Circles," ''Chicago Life'', December 2013, p. 16.
In 2010s, Ledgerwood has also increasingly introduced three-dimensional elements into her practice.Ciezadio, Janina "Judy Ledgerwood/Rhona Hoffman Gallery," ''NewCity'', January 17, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2019. These include a body of smaller, simplified paintings featuring more thickly painted, iconic
cruciform
Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design.
Cruciform architectural plan
Christian churches are commonly described ...
arrangements of circles and schematized floral shapes (e.g., ''Post Punk Female Abstraction'', 2010), passages of thick, viscous paint squeezed straight out of the tube,Dluzen, Robin. "Judy Ledgerwood: Love, Power, Color at Rhona Hoffman Gallery," ART LTD, November, 2013. relief-like polyurethane "blob paintings,"Germanos, Paul "Anne Wilson & Judy Ledgerwood @ Rhona Hoffman," ''Chicago Critical'', February 5, 2011. Retrieved August 19, 2019. and large, painted ceramic vases.
Collections and recognition
Ledgerwood's work belongs to the public art collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles,Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles "Judy Ledgerwood," ''Fat Track'' (2001), Collection. Retrieved August 20, 2019. Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (Switzerland),
Hammer Museum
The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...
,Hammer Museum "Recent Acquisition," Newsletter, Winter 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
Chicago Public Library
The Chicago Public Library (CPL) is the public library system that serves the City of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. It consists of 81 locations, including a central library, two regional libraries, and branches distributed throughout the ...
,
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art
The Block Museum of Art is a free public art museum located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The Block Museum was established in 1980 when Chicago art collectors Mary (daughter of Albert Lasker) and Leigh B. Block (f ...
,Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art "Judy Ledgerwood," Collection. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
Milwaukee Art Museum
The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) is an art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its collection contains nearly 25,000 works of art.
Location and Visit
Located on the lakefront of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the largest art museu ...
,Milwaukee Art Museum "Judy Ledgerwood," Collection. Retrieved August 20, 2019. and Smart Museum of Art,Smart Museum of Art Ledgerwood," Collection. Retrieved August 20, 2019. among others.University of Chicago Booth School of Business "Judy Ledgerwood" Artists. Retrieved August 20, 2019. Ledgerwood is a recipient of awards from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation (2007), Artadia (2004), and
Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation
The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation was founded in 1918 by Louis Comfort Tiffany to operate his estate, Laurelton Hall, in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. It was designed to be a summer retreat for artists and craftspeople. In 1946 the estate ...
(1997), the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Illinois Arts Council.Vogel, Carol "Visual Artists Win," ''The New York Times'', January 30, 1998. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...