Dinner Party (FIG. 36-33), using craft techniques (such as china
painting and needlework) traditionally practiced by women, to cele-
brate the achievements and contributions women made throughout
history (see “Judy Chicago on The Dinner Party,” above). She originally
conceived the work as a feminist Last Supper for 13 “honored guests,”
as in the New Testament, but all women. There also are 13 women in a
witches’ coven, and Chicago’s Dinner Partyrefers to witchcraft and the
worship of the Mother Goddess. But because Chicago had uncovered
so many worthy women in the course of her research, she expanded the
number of guests threefold to 39 and placed them around a triangular
table 48 feet long on each side. The triangular form refers to the ancient
symbol for both woman and the Goddess. The notion of a dinner party
also alludes to women’s traditional role as homemakers.
The Dinner Party rests on a white tile floor inscribed with the
names of 999 additional women of achievement to signify that the ac-
complishments of the 39 honored guests rest on a foundation other
women laid. Among those with place settings at the table are O’Keeffe,
the Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut (see “Hatshepsut,” Chapter 3, page
68), the British writer Virginia Woolf, the Native American guide
Sacagawea, and the American suffragist Susan B. Anthony. Each
woman’s place has identical eating utensils and a goblet but a unique
oversized porcelain plate and a long place mat or table runner covered
with imagery that reflects significant facts about that woman’s life and
culture. The plates range from simple concave shapes with china-
painted imagery to dishes whose sculptured three-dimensional de-
signs almost seem to struggle to free themselves. The designs on each
plate incorporate both butterfly and vulval motifs—the butterfly as
the ancient symbol of liberation and the vulva as the symbol of female
sexuality. Each table runner combines traditional needlework tech-
niques, including needlepoint, embroidery, crochet, beading, patch-
work, and appliqué.The Dinner Party is, however, more than the sum
of its parts. It provides viewers with a powerful launching point for
considering broad feminist concerns.MIRIAM SCHAPIRO After enjoying a thriving career as a
hard-edge painter in California in the late 1960s,Miriam Schapiro
(b. 1923) became fascinated with the hidden metaphors for woman-
hood she then saw in her abstract paintings. Intrigued by the materials990 Chapter 36 EUROPE AND AMERICA AFTER 1945O
ne of the acknowledged mas-
terpieces of feminist art is
Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party
(FIG. 36-33), which required a team of
nearly 400 to create and assemble. In
1979, Chicago published a book ex-
plaining the genesis and symbolism
of the work.
[By 1974] I had discarded [my origi-
nal] idea of painting a hundred ab-
stract portraits on plates, each pay-
ing tribute to a different historic
female figure....In my research I
realized over and over again that
women’s achievements had been left
out of history ....My new idea was
to try to symbolize this....[I
thought] about putting the plates on
a table with silver, glasses, napkins,
and tablecloths, and over the next
year and a half the concept ofThe
Dinner Partyslowly evolved. I began
to think about the piece as a reinter-
pretation of the Last Supper from
the point of view of women, who,
throughout history, had prepared the
meals and set the table. In my “Last
Supper,” however, the women would
be the honored guests. Their repre-
sentation in the form of plates set on the table would express the way
women had been confined, and the piece would thus reflect both
women’s achievements and their oppression....My goal with The
Dinner Partywas ...to forge a new kind of art expressing women’s
experience ....[It] seemed appropriate to relate our history throughart, particularly through techniques traditionally associated with
women—china-painting and needlework.** Judy Chicago,The Dinner Party: A Symbol of Our Heritage(Garden City, N.Y.:
Anchor Press, 1979) 11–12.Judy Chicago on The Dinner Party
ARTISTS ON ART
36-33Judy Chicago,The Dinner Party,1979. Multimedia, including ceramics and stitchery,
48 long on each side. Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn.
Chicago’s Dinner Partyhonors 39 women from antiquity to 20th-century America. The triangular form
and the materials—painted china and fabric—are traditionally associated with women.10 ft.