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China-painting Color Test Plates

Judy Chicago

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

In this set of ceramic plates executed over six months, Chicago meticulously charts various glazes and palettes, echoing her earlier abstract color wheel paintings and drawings. In the almost scientific investigation she notes chromatic ranges, firing difficulties, and the subsequent results. This experimentation was part of Chicago’s apprenticeship with master china painters in order to become an expert in the technique. Her intensive training added to an already extensive range of techniques, as she had studied plastics, auto body painting, and pyrotechnics in the 1960s, when she was usually the lone woman in the courses.
MEDIUM Porcelain and china paint, twelve plates
DATES 1974
DIMENSIONS display case: 34 3/4 × 84 × 3 1/2 in. (88.3 × 213.4 × 8.9 cm)  (show scale)
ACCESSION NUMBER 2014.71
CREDIT LINE Gift of the artist
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Judy Chicago (American, born 1939). China-painting Color Test Plates, 1974. Porcelain and china paint, twelve plates, display case: 34 3/4 × 84 × 3 1/2 in. (88.3 × 213.4 × 8.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the artist, 2014.71. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: , 2014.71_PS9.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 2014.71_PS9.jpg., 2017
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RIGHTS STATEMENT © Judy Chicago
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Judy Chicago (American, born 1939). <em>China-painting Color Test Plates</em>, 1974. Porcelain and china paint, twelve plates, display case: 34 3/4 × 84 × 3 1/2 in. (88.3 × 213.4 × 8.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the artist, 2014.71. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: , 2014.71_PS9.jpg)