Judith Bernstein: Dicks of Death

Judith Bernstein: Dicks of Death

For over five decades, my most powerful and intense relationship has been with my work. As a graduate student at Yale in the '60s, I began to use the phallus as a metaphor for feminism and male posturing. At the time, Yale was an all-male undergraduate program. I became fascinated with explicit graffiti that I discovered in men's bathrooms, finding inspiration in raw humor and unedited scrawls. Aggression and humor are strongly connected in my work. This is epitomized in my piece "Supercock" (1966), a drawing of a comic superhero with huge genitals ejaculating through the world; and in "Fun-Gun" (1967), an anatomical drawing of a phallus shooting collaged live ammo. My "Fuck Vietnam" series was just the start. Graffiti influences can be traced throughout my entire body of work and in my scatological titles such as "Dicks of Death" (2015). I confront war with very graphic, in-your-face words and images. Stuffed phalluses, blood and semen juxtapose national imagery and the US flag. It's funny but it's dead serious! Charcoal is my favorite medium. Over the span of my career, the experience of working with charcoal has been extremely dynamic, raw and personal. There's a gritty and visceral quality to these political drawings. The charcoal works represent an amalgamation of anti-war, feminism and sexuality. Beyond these themes, my work delves into the multiple layers of the human psyche. My art confronts the viewer with the urgency and complexity of human relationships - issues that perpetually arise and tension that resonate from our origins to today. Célèbre pour ses dessins érotiques proches du graffiti et son engagement féministe, Judith Bernstein (née en 1942 à Newark, New Jersey, vit et travaille à New York) est l'une des membres fondatrices de la A.I.R Gallery et l'une des premières militantes au sein d'organisations activistes comme les Guerrilla Girls, la Art Workers' Coalition, et Fight Censorship. Elle a exposé au New Museum, New York ; à la Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York ; à The Box, Los Angeles et au Mary Boone, New York, et a participé aux expositions collectives « The Comfort of Strangers » au MoMA PS1, New York ; « The Last Newspaper » au New Museum, New York, ainsi qu'à « The Historical Box » chez Hauser & Wirth à Zurich et Londres. Ses travaux font parti des collections du MoMa, du Whitney Museum of American Art, du Brooklyn Museum, du Jewish Museum, et de la Yale University Art Gallery.