Early Personal Life
Judy Chicago was born Judith Sylvia Cohen in 1939, to Arthur and May Cohen, in Chicago, Illinois. Her father came from a twenty-three generation lineage of rabbis, including Vilna Gaon. Unlike his family predecessors, he would become a labor organizer and a Marxist. Arthur worked nights at a post office and during the day he would take care of Chicago, while May, who was a former dancer, worked as a medical secretary. Arthur's active participation in the American Communist Party, liberal views towards women and support of worker's rights, strongly influenced Chicago's way of thinking and belief system. During the 1950s McCarthyism era, he was investigated, which caused him to struggle to find work, and caused the family much turmoil. In 1945, while home alone with her infant brother, Ben, an FBI agent visited the home. The agent began to ask the six year old Chicago questions about her father and his friends, but the agent was interrupted upon the return of May to the house. Arthur's health declined, and he died in 1953 from peritonitis. May would not discuss his death with Chicago and Ben, and did not allow the children to attend the funeral. Chicago would not reflect on his death until she was an adult, and in the early 1960s she would be hospitalized for almost a month with a bleeding ulcer attributed to unresolved grief.
May loved the arts, and instilled her passion for them in her children, as evident in Chicago's future as an artist, and brother Ben's eventual career as a potter. At age of three, Chicago began to draw and was sent to the Art Institute of Chicago to attend classes. By the age of 5, Chicago knew that she "never wanted to do anything but make art." She applied, but was declined attendance at the Art Institute, and attended UCLA on a scholarship.
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