The Four (Revisited)

The Four (Revisited) is the first in The de Saisset Exhibition Histories series excavating and re-staging significant projects that took place at the museum during the early 1970s, under the visionary leadership of de Saisset Director Lydia Modi-Vitale. During this time, the museum championed women artists and served as an incubator for innovative artistic practices that expanded the parameters of painting, nurtured first generation video artists, and provided a platform for experimental performance and installation. The Four (Revisited) examines an exhibition of the same title (The Four) that took place in 1973. Featuring formative projects by Judy Chicago, Lynda Benglis, Miriam Shapiro, and Bonnie Sherk the exhibition was designed “to proceed from the inanimate two-dimensional paintings, to the video tapes of ‘live situations,’ to the live situations themselves,”1 which in addition to showcasing breakthrough works by these artists challenged museological norms and expanded the limits of the institution.

In its original configuration, Chicago exhibited paintings from her Pasadena Lifesavers, Fresno Fans, and Flesh Garden series (1969-71). Formally inventive, these works deployed sprayed acrylic lacquer on acrylic—techniques gleaned from auto-body classes—to create candy-colored minimalist forms on canvas. Experimenting with the formal properties of video, Lynda Benglis’ Noise (1972), used sound and editing techniques as devices to produce entropic video portraits that dissolved and materialized into new forms. Working with computer technologies, Miriam Shapiro used software designed by computer engineers to transcribe hand-drawn landscapes into hard-edged geometric abstractions. While Bonnie Sherk, working in installation, transformed the museum into a participatory environment incorporating animals, plants, sculpture, performance, and video.

Stylistically diverse, the experimental works of Chicago, Benglis, Shapiro, and Sherk in The Four challenged patriarchal art world practices by expanding the formal approaches and methodologies associated with minimalism, first-wave video work, geometric abstraction, and installation through the use of unconventional materials, processes, and nascent technologies. By revisiting these breakthrough works, brought together under Modi-Vitali’s innovative curation, The Four (Revisited) highlights the significant contributions made by these artists at the time, and underscores the de Saisset’s commitment to progressive artistic and institutional practices. 

The Four (Revisited) is curated by Ciara Ennis, Director and Chief Curator de Saisset Museum with Lauren Baines, Assistant Director de Saisset Museum and support from SCU student interns Elise Fendon ‘26, Lucas Gustin ‘27, and Taliya Peiris ‘27. 

^{1. Los Gatos Times-Observer, January 4, 1973}

^{Pictured: Original 1972 exhibition announcement, reconfigured.}