Judy Chicago, Inc.: How the Artist Is Building a Merchandise Empire Through Signature Soaps, Skateboards, and Wine

After seeing the current exhibition of early work by Judy
Chicago at Jeffrey Deitch gallery in Los Angeles (through November
2), visitors may be surprised to discover that the exit is through
a gift shop.

There, products from the feminist artist’s growing merchandise
empire—pink skate decks, postcards, and goddess soaps—are available
for purchase.

“Even though most of the audience at museum shops is female,
most shops don’t offer much in the way of feminist materials,”
Chicago told artnet News when asked about her expansion into the
retail market. “This is very aggravating!”

Chicago made strides in the business of branded products two
years ago, when she created a line of four limited-edition dinner
plates timed to her 2017 Brooklyn Museum show “Roots of The Dinner
Party,” ranging from $135 to $155.

“Over the years, I’ve watched a lot of people get commissions to
make dinner plates and I always thought, ‘like, excuse me?’”
Chicago told artnet News at the
time.

Chicago signed on to work with Laura Currie and her company,
Prospect NY, to develop the decorative plates that they hoped would
“sit in people’s houses and generate conversation,” Currie
said.

“I had already done some products but they never got widely
distributed,” Chicago said. “As I have always been interested
in broadening the audience for art without compromising aesthetic
quality, I was very interested in working with Laura. We work
together closely to make sure the products that we produce also
have educational value. For instance, The Dinner Party
plates have information on the back about the women
represented.”

The plates were such a “radical success,” Currie said, that the
pair decided to experiment with new products.

Today, Chicago’s wares include coasters, towels, silk
scarves, a Max Mara t-shirt, throw pillows, and, most recently,
wine produced by the Jaramillo Winery in New Mexico, where Chicago
lives. The bottles’ labels feature the artist’s signature and a
looping pink-and-purple design. (The white wine is, according to one
review, “soft, clean, and relatively neutral.”)

Sometimes the products are rolled out to coincide with museum
exhibitions and sold through institutional gift shops, such as the
Bigamy Hood Towel ($125), produced on the occasion of Chicago’s
retrospective at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Miami in
2018–19, and or the Judy Chicago cotton t-shirt ($62) for the
Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, which honored the artist at
its 2019 “Visionary” luncheon.

Other products are sold year-round on Prospect NY’s website, which also offers works produced
with artists such as Nir Hod, Enoc Perez, Rachel Libeskind, and
Baron Von Fancy.

When asked if she sees merchandise as a potential alternative
revenue stream to the traditional art market, which has
historically undervalued women artists, she said, “No, that was not
my motivation, which has never been about money.”

In some cases, the payoff for merchandise seems to be
relatively low. For example, the skateboard company that produced a
line of Chicago-designed decks—$350 for a pink ripple-patterned
version, $750 for a three-deck butterfly—gives
artists 5 percent of the proceeds (Chicago is donating her cut to
her non-profit organization Through the Flower) and donates another
5 percent to a charity that teaches skateboarding to refugees.
Chicago’s take home is higher for the wine, for which she receives
30 percent of the proceeds from bottles that retail for about $50
each (or $125 for signed bottles).

Currie says that Prospect NY’s contracts with artists are
confidential but that they receive “a significant percentage of
every single item that is sold.”

“The main benefit is a complementary resource—a place
for artists to create and share beyond their studio and
galleries,” Currie said. “If this offers an alternative
revenue stream for artists, then that’s great, but we’re not here
to be disruptive to an artists’ practice. We look at it as a chance
for artists to create something fun and different that expands
their work.”

See more of Chicago’s merchandise below.

The post Judy Chicago, Inc.: How the Artist Is Building a
Merchandise Empire Through Signature Soaps, Skateboards, and
Wine appeared first on artnet News.