Judith Bernstein (born 1942 in Newark, New Jersey)
is a
feminist artist best known for her
erotic drawings and graffiti art. Since receiving her MFA from Yale in 1967, she has developed a reputation as one of the most unwaveringly provocative artists of her generation, exploring connections between the political and the sexual. Steadfast in her cultural, political, and social critique, she surged into art world prominence in the early 1970s with her monumental anti-war and feminist charcoal drawings of penis-screw hybrids—one of the artist's most recognizable motifs. Bernstein was a founding member of A.I.R. Gallery as well as an early member of many art and activist organizations including Guerrilla Girls, Art Workers' Coalition, and Fight Censorship.
Bernstein has been awarded numerous accolades throughout her career and has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at museums in New York and abroad. Her monumental 9 x 12 feet charcoal drawing Horizontal was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY in 2023.
