Judithe Hernández

For my presentation, I’ve chosen to focus on the artist Judithe Hernández. Hernández first achieved recognition through her murals but has since become known for her pastel paintings. I decided to choose her for my project because I was fascinated by the complex imagery seen in a lot of her work. I would like to learn more about the symbolism in her iconography, color choice, and painting/artmaking techniques. Her paintings reminded me of Henri Rousseau, and I am curious about the relationship between a Chicana painter like Hernández and a French painter like Rousseau. In addition, some of her paintings have a surrealist look to them, and I wonder how that impacts the types of artistic message she is trying to convey in her work.

In relationship to the reading, I believe that Judith Hernández’s work explores themes like gender and identity politics. For example, it seems that her work discusses women’s roles and how Chicana women must deal with prejudice resulting from their skin color and their gender role as caregivers/wives/mothers. I also find it interesting that Hernández used public art to convey her feminist message before switching to making work that was displayed in galleries and museums. Since the gallery and museum space is historically dominated by white men, it is interesting to see how a Chicana artist like Hernández uses her position to speak to these more private spaces. As an artist making public art in Los Angeles, I’m also excited to explore her work that discusses the Southern California community in relationship to her Chicana identity.