Time & Perspective Quote by Judy Chicago

Judy Chicago’s line lands with the double edge that’s defined her career: pride without complacency, achievement shadowed by the fear of institutional amnesia. “I feel like I have at least begun” is doing a lot of work. It’s modest on the surface, but it’s also an indictment of how high the bar has been set for women artists to be considered “real” contributors at all. The word “begun” implies a lifetime of labor that still doesn’t guarantee permanence, because permanence isn’t awarded by effort; it’s granted by archives, museums, donors, curricula, and the often male-coded gatekeeping systems that decide what counts as heritage.

The pivot from “contribution” to “preserved” exposes the actual battlefield: not making the work, but keeping it legible in history. Chicago came up in a postwar art world that canonized movements through a tight loop of critics, institutions, and market validation. Her most famous projects, like The Dinner Party, weren’t just artworks; they were arguments for who deserves a place at the table - literally and art-historically. That kind of work attracts a particular backlash: it’s labeled “issue-driven,” “decorative,” or “didactic,” all convenient ways to shuffle it into the footnotes.

“Erased” is the key word, and it’s not melodrama. It’s a reminder that cultural memory is curated, not automatic. Chicago isn’t only worried about physical conservation; she’s warning about narrative decay - the way radical work gets softened, sidelined, or stripped of its politics once the moment passes.