The Dinner Party

Judy Chicago and Feminism

Recap Quiz
1. Second-wave feminism was most active in which decades?
2. What did second-wave feminism seek to change?
3. How was this different to first-wave feminism?
4. Why did contraception make such a large difference to the lives of
women?
5. Name two feminist artists that we looked at last lesson?
6. Write down one contribution that a female artist made to the
Feminist movement.
7. When did Judy Chicago create The Dinner Party?
8. What was one thing in Judy Chicago’s life that contributed to her
being a feminist?
Context surrounding “The Dinner Party”:

● Chicago was committed to making art that could speak

clearly to those outside of the elite art world.
● Because the artwork had help from a large proportion of the
community (400 volunteers), it was given a lot of attention in
the media during its production and subsequent tour.
● This attention placed the work in the view of everyday people
and was extremely well-known.
Context surrounding “The Dinner Party”:

● Feminists published books and magazines to raise

awareness: “consciousness-raising” of their cause.
● Ms. magazine published in 1972 New York.
● There was a groundswell of feminism and the media
highlighted the feminist campaign.
● This drew more women to the cause.
● It changed from a phase to a movement.
Context surrounding “The Dinner Party”:

● Feminists saw politics (who has the power) and history (story
of the past) as linked and Judy Chicago was no different.
● She spent a lot of time researching women artists when
presenting new feminist art history with her students in
Fresno.
● Women were overlooked, undervalued and left out of history.
Context surrounding “The Dinner Party”:

● She wanted to create a visual representation of women’s

history that symbolised and contextualised the female
body.
● She wanted the work to represent a record of women’s
accomplishments.
Context surrounding “The Dinner Party”:

● Chicago drew energy from working with other people.

● Because “The Dinner Party” was such a large work of art, the
extra help was essential to completing it.
● Chicago was interested in the skills women applied in their
homes. Many of these skills were dismissed by the art world as
craft or hobbies. They were not taken seriously. Chicago wanted
to change this to elevate the value and significance of women.
Elements of “The Dinner Party”: Runners
What were they made of?
Millennium runners, silk coverings inspired by altar cloths, fit over the apexes
Thirteen place settings are on each side which where 48 feet long and of a triangular table draped with a white felt cloth, with a
triangular millennium runner at each of three corners.

How were they made?

They are embroidered in white thread on a white ground, each with a subtle letter “M,” as it is the thirteenth letter of the
alphabet, signifying the break in each group of place settings. Susan Hill oversaw all the needlework for The Dinner Party.

What was on them?

Their were butterfly images, these appear for the first time in the needlework of the third wing. A symbol of liberation, the
butterfly gradually becomes more prominent in the last place settings, which chronicle women's efforts to gain equal rights and
to regain their creative powers."
After the first group of runners had been completed, I began to alter the format of the design. Instead of the imagery being
restricted to the periphery of the runner, it gradually moved closer to the plate, steadily encroaching on its space.On the last
wing of the table, I made a strong visual change.

I wanted to imply an alteration in the historical circumstances of the women represented — particularly after the beginning of
the women's revolution, which is marked by the place setting for Mary Wollstonecraft. At this point I began to break the rigid
rectilinear form of the runners in the same way that the edges of the plates had been modified to reflect women's growing
struggle toward freedom.

Was there any symbolism or meaning involved in this element? What significance do they have?

I intended this as a metaphor for the increasing restrictions on women's power that occurred in the development of Western
civilization. The relationship between the plates and their runners reflects the varying positions of women in different periods
of history. In some cases, the plates dominate the runners; in others, the imagery of the runners engulfs or threatens the plate;
sometimes, there is the same congruence between the plate and the runner that the woman experienced between her own
aspirations and the prevailing attitudes toward female achievement; and occasionally, there is enormous visual tension between
the plate and its runner as a symbol of that woman's rebellion against the constraints of female role.
The plates

Imagery used
The plates are hand-painted with pictures of butterflies and flowers, which are meant to resemble vaginas. The 39 plates start
flat and begin to sit higher the further into the table it gets, meant to represent modern woman's increasing independence and
equality. Each plate is unique, with imagery related to the artist, eg clasped hands for the poet/nun, Hrosvitha.

Significance:
Judy Chicago’s 1974 - 1979 piece, The Dinner Party is known as the first epic
female made, feminsit art installation to be shown in a gallery. The significance
of the plates and the graphic female imagery presented on them are shown in an
effort to display women in a non-shameful way.

The use of vaginal imagery is used to tie the women together. Despite
differences in race, religion, etc, all women are connected to each other by
their female anatomy.

Made of
Includes a hand-painted china porcelain plates, ceramic
cutlery and chalice, and a napkin with an embroidered gold
edge.
Elements of “The Dinner Party”: Heritage
Floor
● What was written on the floor?
The names of mythical and historical women of achievement inscribed in gold luster. Selected to contextualize the 39 women
represented in the place settings and to convey “how many women had struggled into prominence or been able to make their ideas
known—sometimes in the face of overwhelming obstacles—only (like the women on the table) to have their hard-earned achievements
marginalized or erased”. The names were organised by time period. E.g. the women at the table who was born in the same time period,
had the women who were born in the same time period written on the floor. The chosen Heritage Floor names correlate to each of the 39
place settings by commonality of experience, historic contribution, time period, and/or geography.

● How many women were referenced?

999 out of 3,000. Potential names were researched by over twenty members of The Dinner Party‘s research team, headed by Diane
Gelon and Ann Isolde. Out of three thousand names compiled, 999 were selected, their inclusion decided on by three criteria: did the
woman make a worthwhile contribution to society; had she attempted to improve conditions for women; did her life/work exemplify a
significant aspect of women’s history or provide a role model for a more egalitarian society?
Elements of “The Dinner Party”: Heritage Floor
Pt: 2

● What was it made of?

2,300 hand-cast triangular porcelain tiles. Each tile was hand-cast and hand-sanded at the China Boutique outside of Los Angeles. The tiles
were repeatedly fired with rainbow luster as well as with the gold luster used for the names. The process of creating the Heritage Floor
took over two years.

● Did it have significance? What does it add to the art work?

The Heritage Floor serves as a visual representation of the vast contributions women have made to every aspect of history. Names of
goddesses, mythological figures, religious figures, government leaders, entrepreneurs, writers, artists, musicians, actors, dancers,
filmmakers, architects, scholars, historians, educators, military figures, athletes, physicians, scientists, explorers, philanthropists, activists,
and suffragettes, primarily from western civilization, from prehistory to the 20th century, can be found on The Dinner Party‘s Heritage
Floor.
Elements of “The Dinner Party”: Table Settings

Chalices, napkins, utensils.

There are 39 place settings

On each place setting there is, a gold ceramic chalice and ceramic cutlery, a napkin with an embroidered edge, and a
fourteen-inch hand painted china plate

Each plate had a central motif based on butterfly and vulvar forms

Each table cloth and plate had a name to it.

The table is set up in 13 plates as it is similar to the last supper the triangle represents a women’s ovaries.

A white tablecloth is a symbol of wealth, purity and cleanliness in the home. Furthermore, a tablecloth also
represents the foundation of a dinner party as it prepares the table for the courses that are to come.

The chalice represent the wine they drank at the last supper and the plates shows where the bread.

It shows the history of women through civilisation.

39 plates represent 39 mythical and historically important famous women of the past.

Inscribed with the names of 998 women and one man (the man, was included by mistake, as he was thought to have
been a woman)
Wing 1: From prehistory to Rome
Wing 1 of the three table sides honors women from prehistory to the Roman Empire.

● 1. Primordial Goddess: the Greek primordial goddesses included Gaia (earth), Hemera (day), Phusis (nature), Thalassa (sea), Moirai (fate).
● 2. Fertile Goddess: fertility goddesses were associated with pregnancy, childbirth, sex, and fertility. In Greek mythology this included Aphrodite,
Artemis, Cybele, Demeter, Gaia, Hera, and Rhea.
● 3. Ishtar: a love goddess of Mesopotamia, Assyria,and Babylon.
● 4. Kali: A Hindu goddess, a divine protector, consort of Shiva, destroyer goddess.
● 5. Snake Goddess: in Minoan archaeological sites in Crete, goddesses handling snakes were common household objects.
● 6. Sophia: the personification of wisdom in Hellenistic philosophy and religion, taken into Christian mysticism.
● 7. Amazon: a mythical race of women warriors, associated by historians with different cultures.
● 8. Hatshepsut: in the 15th century BCE, she ruled Egypt as Pharaoh, taking on the power that male rulers wielded.
● 9. Judith: in the Hebrew scriptures, she gained the trust of an invading general, Holofernes, and saves Israel from the Assyrians.
● 10. Sappho: a poet from the 6th-7th century BCE, we know from the few fragments of her work that survive that she sometimes wrote of the love
of women for other women
● 11. Aspasia: to be an independent woman in ancient Greece, there were few options for an aristocratic woman. She could not produce legitimate
children under the law, so her relationship to the powerful Pericles could not be marriage. She is reputed to have advised him on political matters.
● 12. Boadicea: a Celtic warrior queen who led a revolt against Roman occupation, and who has become something of a symbol of British
independence.
● 13. Hypatia: Alexandrian intellectual, philosopher, and teacher, martyred by a Christian mob
Wing 1: From prehistory to Rome
- The number 13 represents the number of people who were present at the Last Supper, an important comparison for Chicago, as the only people
there were men.
- 13 is also the age majority girls mature into a woman
- The 39 plates start flat and begin to emerge in higher relief toward the end of the chronology, meant to represent modern woman's increasing
independence and equality. Wing 1 is the first wing, which has the flat plates

- The first wing of the table begins with prehistory, which is presented in the first seven place settings. The eighth plate, which depicts Hatshepsut,
one of the four female pharaohs of Egypt, is intended to straddle the mythological and real worlds, as pharaohs were thought to incarnate the
power of the deities. Her plate is the first to include a slightly relieved surface, a visual metaphor for the struggle for liberation that is developed
in the later plate images.
- The initial place settings present a series of Goddess figures. These are intended to represent prepatriarchal society, which was typified by the
widespread worship of the Goddess. The early runners incorporate simple textile techniques and various motifs that emphasize the importance of
the Goddess in the development of needlework, attested to by a variety of ancient myths and legends. The invention of weaving and spinning was
often attributed to a number of female deities, who are described as having both taught these kills to women and sanctified their work.
- The next sequence of place settings chronicle the development of Judaism, early Greek societies, and then the emergence of Rome as the center of
the so-called civilized world. The decline of the Roman empire, while marking the end of the classical world, also brought significant alterations
in women's circumstances. The earlier periods that featured some measure of social and political power gave way to increasing
disenfranchisement, legal restrictions, and in some cultures, the sequestering of women. These changes are reflected in the runner designs on the
first wing of the table and epitomized by the last image, that of Hypatia. Her place setting, and particularly the runner back, symbolize the
terrible punishment inflicted upon some of those women who attempted to maintain the ancient tradition of reverence for both women and the
Goddess.
Wing 1: From Prehistory to Rome

● The first guest at the table is the Primordial Goddess. She

represents the earliest point in human civilisation, when the
earth was considered feminine and powerful (Earth
Mother)
● Other goddesses who represent women as the source of
creation.
● Drama of mythology.
Wing 2: From Christianity to the Reformation
Who were the women referenced in this wing?
Marcella , Saint Bridget , Theodora ,Hrosvitha , Trota of Salerno , Eleanor of Aquitaine ,Hildegarde of Bingen ,Petronilla de
Meath, Christine de Pisan, Isabella d'Este, Elizabeth I, Artemisia Gentileschi, Anna van Schurman.

What were their accomplishments?

The notable thing about these women are intellectually minded - period of enlightenment. The women included were philosophers,
physicians, gynecologists during a time period where this would’ve been looked down upon and not endorsed.

Is there a difference in the way this section looks compared to the others?
The plates were less 3 dimensional on the christianity to reformation wing of the table.the plates slower become more dimensional
with more shapely edges
To represent their increasing individuation
Wing 2: From Christianity to Reformation

● Issues of women’s spirituality, access to education and

leadership, and treatment of their bodies.
● Christianity caused the loss of female power to a male-
centred story of God the father and his son.
● Women became confined within domesticity.
 Wing 3: The American Revolution to the Women’s
Revolution
Who were the women referenced in this wing?: Wing Three begins with Anne Hutchinson and addresses the American Revolution, Suffragism, and the
movement toward women’s increased individual creative expression, symbolized at last by Georgia O’Keeffe. Women involved in this wing includes, Anne
Hutchinson, Sacajawea, Caroline Herschel, Mary Wollstonecraft, Sojourner Truth, Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Blackwell, Emily Dickinson, Ethel Smyth,
Margaret Sanger, Natalie Barney, Virginia Woolf, Georgia O’Keefe.

What were there accomplishments: By looking at all 13 women and their individual accomplishments, many of the women’s accomplishments came from
education, such as Elizabeth Blackwell was the first women to graduate from medical school. Many women were poets, english composers, writers, lectureres and
some women even had many scientific discoveries.

Is there a difference in the way this section looks compared to the others?: The third (and last) wing of the table begun with a work created by Anne Hutchinson.
She created a plate using traditional eighteenth century mourning pictures. The purpose behind this was to mourn for the women before them who had less
rights and freedom than them.

The nineteenth-century feminist revolution made it possible for women to speak publicly; to change oppressive laws; to achieve significant political reform; to
gain access to education; to enter previously restricted professions; and to begin forging organizations, philosophies, and creative forms through which women's
experiences and perspective could be articulated. The plates become increasingly dimensional and unique as a metaphor for the increased freedom and
individualization available as a result of what was a profound transformation in Western women's historical circumstances. The rigid, rectilinear form of the
runners begins to break open as a symbol for these new privileges. Finally, the butterfly — as a symbol of liberation — becomes more prominent in both the plate
and runner designs, representing women's ever-intensifying struggle to achieve both independence and full creative power.
Wing 3: From American Revolution to the Women’s
Revolution

● Starts with a low point in women’s history.

● A grieving for the loss of power
Symbolism in The Dinner Party

● Chicago used imagery of female parts as a symbol of

universal womanhood.
● Chicago did not believe this definitive aspect of a woman’s
body should be a mark of shame to be hidden or denied.
Symbolism in The Dinner Party

● Religious imagery
The experience of The Dinner Party

● Once a visitor has passed through the documentation

panels, she moves under six densely-woven banners with
lines invoking a female-centered origin myth that position
The Dinner Party as both a vision of a time without
patriarchy and a record of women shaped by unchecked
male power.
Installing The Dinner Party

● The first public viewing was March 14, 1979. It took two
weeks to install.
Reactions to The Dinner Party

● Jean A. Rosenfeld: The female imagery “made me feel

vulnerable… This opening into our bodies - the insides that
we never see - how frightening to be blood and bones and
glands… I wonder if this feeling of vulnerability is what
frightened male artists- made them so aghast at your work”
Reactions to The Dinner Party

● Jane Whitehead: “the camaraderie that developed among

the women in the line was surpassed only by the marvelous
feeling of pride, beauty and awareness of women’s history
that your wonderful exhibit gave us! Thank you so very
much”