Judith Bernstein facts for kids

Judith Bernstein (born October 14, 1942) is an American artist from New York. She is famous for her powerful drawings and paintings. Bernstein uses her art to share her strong feminist and anti-war beliefs.

Her art often connects powerful symbols with big ideas. Her most famous works use the image of a screw. She uses this simple object to create visual puns and stories. Bernstein was also a founding member of A.I.R. Gallery. This was an important all-female art gallery that started during the Feminist Art Movement.

For many years, Bernstein taught art at the SUNY Purchase College. She is now a Professor Emerita, which is a special title for retired professors. Later in her life, her art became very popular. A 2015 article in New York Magazine called her "an art star at last at 72." Bernstein has called this period of new fame "a rebirth."

Her work is part of many famous museum collections. These include the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Brooklyn Museum.

Early Life and Education

Judith Bernstein was born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, in 1942. Her mother was a bookkeeper, and her father was a teacher. Her father also enjoyed painting, and she learned about art from him.

She earned her art degrees from the prestigious Yale University. At the time, it was very hard for women to get top jobs in the art world. The head of the art department at Yale even told her, "We cannot place you." This meant he did not think she would get a teaching job after graduating. Before Yale, she also studied at Pennsylvania State University.

Artistic Career

Bernstein's art often uses the same image over and over in a playful way. Her early work was inspired by two things. First, she was influenced by graffiti she saw in men's bathrooms at Yale. Second, she believed that the Vietnam War was caused by a male-dominated style of leadership.

She became interested in graffiti after reading about the play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. The title came from a message someone had written on a bathroom wall. Bernstein felt that graffiti showed what people were really thinking. She began to use words and bold shapes in her own drawings.

The Famous Screw Drawings

In 1969, Bernstein began creating her most famous artworks: a series of huge screw drawings. These drawings used the image of a screw as a symbol. She wanted to show how people can feel "screwed," or treated unfairly. The giant screws looked powerful and a little scary.

One of these drawings, Horizontal (1973), was removed from an art show. The organizers said it had no "redeeming social value," a term often used for controversial art. This is a form of censorship, which is when art or speech is blocked from the public. Many famous artists and critics signed a letter to protest this decision. They believed her work was important and should be seen.

Fighting for Women Artists

Bernstein is a strong feminist. She helped start A.I.R. Gallery in New York City. It was a gallery run by women for women artists. This was important because many galleries at the time did not show art made by women. A.I.R. Gallery gave Bernstein her first solo show in 1973.

Throughout her career, she continued to create art with powerful shapes. In 1993, she made a painting of large, dancing figures that was a reference to the famous painting Dance by Henri Matisse.

Later Success

For a long time, it was hard for Bernstein to get her art into big exhibitions. This was because many people in the art world were not used to her bold style. However, in the 21st century, her work started to get the attention it deserved.

She had many solo shows in galleries in New York, Los Angeles, and Zürich, Switzerland. In 2012, the New Museum in New York gave Bernstein her first solo museum exhibition. For the show, she wrote her name in huge letters across a glass wall. She said it was about ego and power.

In 2016, she had two major solo shows. One was called ... of Death at a New York gallery. The other was called Rising at a museum in Norway. Critics praised these shows. They noted that her new art was just as powerful as her work from the 1960s and 70s. This showed that the issues she cared about, like war and power, were still important today.

In 2016, she also received the Guggenheim Fellowship, a very important award for artists. She continues to live and work in New York City.