Judith Baca
Hitting the Wall: Women in the Marathonc. 1984

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Artist or Maker: Judith Baca
United States, California, Huntington Park, born 1946
Title: Hitting the Wall: Women in the Marathon
Date Made: c. 1984
Medium: Final coloration, colored pencil on paper
Dimensions: Frame: 21.75 x 75.5 x 2 in Sight: 14 1/16 × 68 1/8 in. (35.72 × 173.04 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Drs. Rebecka and Arie Belldegrun through the 2024 Collectors Committee
Accession Number: M.2024.99.1
Classification: Drawings
Collecting Area: Contemporary Art
Curatorial Notes: Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics in 1984, and as part of the preparations for the games, a series of murals were commissioned for the retaining walls of the downtown freeway system. The Olympic Mural Commission offered Judy Baca the 4th Street off-ramp of the 110 North Harbor Freeway in downtown L.A. Hitting the Wall commemorates women’s participation in the marathon for the first time in Olympic history at the 1984 games. In this preparatory drawing for the mural, a powerful female runner crosses the finish line. Baca’s mural celebrates not only the entrance of women into a single sports event but also the defeat of an old order of discrimination and inequality.

Deliasofia Zacarias

Related Unframed

Not on view

No image

Artist or Maker: Judith Baca
United States, California, Huntington Park, born 1946
Title: Hitting the Wall: Women in the Marathon
Date Made: c. 1984
Medium: Final coloration, colored pencil on paper
Dimensions: Frame: 21.75 x 75.5 x 2 in Sight: 14 1/16 × 68 1/8 in. (35.72 × 173.04 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Drs. Rebecka and Arie Belldegrun through the 2024 Collectors Committee
Accession Number: M.2024.99.1
Classification: Drawings
Collecting Area: Contemporary Art
Curatorial Notes: Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics in 1984, and as part of the preparations for the games, a series of murals were commissioned for the retaining walls of the downtown freeway system. The Olympic Mural Commission offered Judy Baca the 4th Street off-ramp of the 110 North Harbor Freeway in downtown L.A. Hitting the Wall commemorates women’s participation in the marathon for the first time in Olympic history at the 1984 games. In this preparatory drawing for the mural, a powerful female runner crosses the finish line. Baca’s mural celebrates not only the entrance of women into a single sports event but also the defeat of an old order of discrimination and inequality.

Deliasofia Zacarias