Friday, February 13, 2009

The Dinner Party, Judy Chicago

The Dinner Party elevates female achievement in Western history to a heroic scale traditionally reserved for men.



Judy Chicago's table has place settings which feature a table runner embroidered with the woman's name and images or symbols relating to her accomplishments. A collaborative effort of many female artists, The Dinner Party celebrates traditional female accomplishments such as textile arts (weaving, embroidery, sewing) and china painting, which have been framed as craft or domestic art, as opposed to the more culturally valued, male dominated fine arts. The white floor of triangular porcelain tiles is inscribed with the names of a further 999 notable women.



Wing I: From Prehistory to the Roman Empire
1. Primordial Goddess
2. Fertility goddess
3. Ishtar
4. Kali
5. Snake Goddess
6. Sophia
7. Amazon
8. Hatshepsut
9. Judith
10. Sappho
11. Aspasia
12. Boudica
13. Hypatia

Wing II: From the Beginnings of Christianity to the Reformation
14. Marcella
15. Saint Bridget
16. Theodora of Byzantium
17. Hrosvitha
18. Trotula of Salerno
19. Eleanor of Aquitaine
20. Hildegard of Bingen
21. Petronilla de Meath
22. Christine de Pisan
23. Isabella d'Este
24. Elizabeth I of England
25. Artemisia Gentileschi
26. Anna van Schurman

Wing III: From the American to the Women’s Revolution
27. Anne Hutchinson
28. Sacajawea
29. Caroline Herschel
30. Mary Wollstonecraft
31. Sojourner Truth
32. Susan B. Anthony
33. Elizabeth Blackwell
34. Emily Dickinson
35. Ethel Smyth
36. Margaret Sanger
37. Natalie Barney
38. Virginia Woolf
39. Georgia O'Keeffe

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

am ashamed to admit that i am familiar with very very few of these names... le sigh. patriarchy, you have effectively warped my mind.

J.G. said...

My reaction, too. And what a beautiful work of art this is, reminding me that I'm neglecting my own heritage.