kids encyclopedia robot

Judith Shea facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Judith Shea
Without Words 1988.jpg
Judith Shea, Without Words (1988), Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
Born 1948
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Alma mater Parsons School of Design
Known for Fashion design
Patron(s) 16

Judith Shea is an American sculptor and artist. She was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1948. She studied fashion design and fine arts at the Parsons School of Design. This education helped her create art based on human figures.

Her art career has had three main stages. First, she used cloth and clothing shapes from 1974 to 1981. Then, she made hollow metal clothing-figure forms from 1982 to 1991. Since 1990, she has created full-figure statues carved from wood, cloth, clay, foam, and even hair.

Judith Shea's Art Journey

Judith Shea's first art show in New York City was in 1976. It took place at the CLOCKTOWER galleries Project Room. She created a performance based on color theory. She made many sheer silk shirts and pants in all colors of the rainbow.

A dancer named Juliette Shen changed clothes as Shea directed. She added and removed layers of the transparent silk. This mixed new colors right before the audience's eyes. There were five performances over three days.

Early Works and Clothing Forms

After her first show, Shea's art traveled across the country. Her work appeared in many museum and art festival exhibits. In 1981, she showed three simple forms at the Whitney Biennial. These forms hung on the wall and looked like clothes from her childhood.

One was a black overcoat called "I LIKE IKE." The others were two simple dresses, "INAUGURAL BALL" and "EXEC. SEC'Y." To Shea, these clothing forms brought a human presence to her art. They made you think of the people who might wear them.

Sculpting with Metal

With help from grants in 1984 and 1986, Shea started casting her figures. She began using iron and bronze. This allowed her to create more three-dimensional sculptures. In 1986, she also received a French Exchange fellowship.

Shea went to Paris to study the statues in its parks and gardens. This research led to several hollow-figure sculptures in the 1980s. These were designed to be placed in public spaces. Some examples include Eden (1986) in Chicago and Without Words (1988) in Minneapolis.

Post-balzac
Post-Balzac (1991) by Judith Shea at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden

Carved Statues and Monuments

In 1987, Shea was an artist-in-residence in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Later, in 1989, she worked at Chesterwood. This was the summer studio of Daniel Chester French. He was the artist who created the Lincoln Memorial monument.

At Chesterwood, Shea began carving what she called "ironic monuments." These were statues made of wood. Her show in 1993 was called "All About Adam, and Eve." An art critic called them "Shea's Anti-Monuments."

One famous piece was "No More Monument." It showed an oversized, middle-aged man on a small, overworked farm horse. This sculpture questioned the old tradition of who gets to be a hero in public monuments.

The Other Monument

In 1994, The Public Art Fund supported Shea's installation called The Other Monument. This wooden statue showed a free Black man riding a Black horse. It was placed in Doris Freedman Plaza in New York City.

It stood directly north of a Civil War monument by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. That monument showed General William Tecumseh Sherman. Shea had researched Saint-Gaudens' Civil War works. She realized there were no statues celebrating the end of slavery.

The Other Monument was her way of adding this missing monument to history. It honored the important victory of Emancipation.

Legacy Collection and 9/11

After several international fellowships, Shea started a new group of works in 2000. These pieces explored the human figure as a character or symbol. This led to her major series called Judith Shea: Legacy Collection.

This collection was inspired by her personal experience of 9/11. She lived very close to what became Ground Zero. Shea created mannequin-like figures for this series. They looked as if they were in the windows of a store near the site.

The figures were elegant in gray felt, covered in dust and debris. They were looking skyward. Shea wrote that she was struck by the contrast. It was "the sleek image of Success - American Style, opposite this spectacular attempt to topple it." Several works from this series are now at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Curating and Honoring Artists

In 2012, The National Academy Museum invited Shea to curate an exhibition. She chose portraits and self-portraits of female members of the Academy. These works dated from 1858 to 1971.

In a video tour of the exhibit, Shea explained what she saw. She believed each woman showed her true self in her self-portrait. They revealed what mattered to them as artists. Shea also made new sculptures for the show. These honored three of her favorite sculptors: Louise Bourgeois, Elizabeth Catlett, and Marisol.

Awards and Recognition

Judith Shea has received many important awards for her sculptures. These awards recognize her talent and contributions to the art world.

  • 2013 ARTS AND LETTERS AWARD IN ART: American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
  • 2013 AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE: The 2013 Annual Exhibition; National Academy Museum, New York, NY
  • 2012 GUGGENHEIM FELLOW in Fine Arts; The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York, NY
  • 2011 ANONYMOUS WAS A WOMAN AWARD; New York, NY
  • 2011 ARTISTS’ LEGACY FOUNDATION 2011 ARTIST AWARD; Oakland, CA
  • 2007 CHARLOTTE DUNWIDDIE PRIZE for SCULPTURE; National Academy Museum, New York, NY
  • 1995 ARTS INTERNATIONAL-LILA WALLACE READER’S DIGEST: International Artist Award; Oaxaca, Mexico
  • 1994 ROME PRIZE FELLOWSHIP: Trustees Award, American Academy in Rome
  • 1993 FELLOW of the AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS MEMORIAL; National Historic Site; Home and studio of Augustus Saint-Gaudens
  • 1993 ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION RESIDENT FELLOWSHIP, Bellagio Study Center, Bellagio, Italy
  • 1992 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE: For Outstanding Volunteer Service with the Artist-and-Homeless Collaborative; City of New York, Human Resources Administration
  • 1989 The GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM SCULPTOR in RESIDENCE at CHESTERWOOD; A National Historic Trust Property; Stockbridge, MA
  • 1986 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT for the ARTS: Individual Artist Fellowship in Sculpture; US/France Exchange
  • 1984 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT for the ARTS: Individual Artist Fellowship in Sculpture

Where to See Her Art

Judith Shea's sculptures are part of many public art collections. You can find her work in museums across the United States.

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
Judith Shea Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.