Judith Shea's early training was as a clothing designer. Her earliest works, such as Bop (1980), were simple forms made of pliant fabric and hung on the wall. Later, she began casting fabric in metal so as to achieve greater strength and rigidity. The simplified forms in works such as Enduring Charms (1986) synthesize figurative art and Minimalism. The use of clothing forms allowed her to represent the human figure using the most economical of means. In the mid-1980s, Shea began juxtaposing figures with forms and then pairing figures to give her work added psychological complexity. The inclusion of the pyramid in Enduring Charms underscores the formal links between the hollow skirt form and early Egyptian figures of pharaohs and queens.
She continues the Egyptian motif in her Garden sculpture, Without Words
(1988), which features a sculpted head fragment modeled after an
Eighteenth Dynasty sculpture of Queen Tiye. Beside the head is a
rumpled modern overcoat and a dress form (patterned after a dinner
dress that belonged to her mother), which, like the skirt in Enduring
Charms, seems both ancient and contemporary. The three juxtaposed
pieces in Without Words create an ambiguous narrative that touches on
art, history, and personal psychology.
Without Words 1988
bronze, marble, limestone (replaced head marble)
Collection Walker Art
Center, Minneapolis
Gift of Jeanne and
Richard Levitt, 1988