The bigger picture: Judy Chicago, the artful rebellion one dinner party at a time

Judy Chicago, born Judith Sylvia Cohen, has been an active participant and pioneer of the art world since the 1960s. If you’ve never heard of her, then it’s time to crawl out from under your rock. Her most notable works are that of The Dinner Party, that lives in the Brooklyn Museum, and Revelations, which was exhibited at the Serpentine in London this past summer.

An artist, academic and writer, Chicago studied at UCLA, as an undergraduate, in the 1950s. During this time, she took an Art History class where the professor claimed that women had made zero contributions to European history. Naturally, this ignited her determination to find evidence to prove him completely ignorant.

This was the start of the domino effect that resulted in the rise of academic fields such as Queer Theory and Post-Colonial Studies

Through her motivation, Chicago started the first ever feminist art programme at Fresno State College with artist Miriam Shapiro in 1970. This was the start of the domino effect that resulted in the rise of academic fields such as Queer Theory and Post-Colonial Studies, that had been ignored in the West for centuries. Chicago kept herself busy during these years: shortly after graduating from UCLA, she attended Auto-Body school where she was the only woman out of 250 men. To really make a statement to her male peers, instead of spraying cars, Chicago created vulvar forms onto the hoods of cars.

Chicago has never been against making a statement in her art. She believes that the purpose of life is to make a contribution. This motto was reminiscent of her home environment, which was one of equality. Her father, a Marxist, held political meetings at home that didn’t exclude anyone that wanted to come along. Chicago grew up experiencing gender equality within her family, but as she matured, she noticed the widely held belief that women were less capable than men. She quickly adopted the mindset of “will I believe what everyone else thinks or will I believe my own experience?”. As a result, Chicago has created (and continues to create) art and literature that challenges the status quo of many factions within society. In looking at the current political climate, it is clear that her work is as relevant now as it was in the 1960s.

Instead of Jesus and his 12 apostles, ‘The Dinner Party’ represents 1,038 women in history

For this article, I want to focus on The Dinner Party. The piece was made between 1974-1979, with the aim to place a spotlight on the abundance of women’s achievements and contributions to history. The artwork is an inverted triangle table, a symbol of equality, alluding to The Last Supper, that is famously all male. Instead of Jesus and his 12 apostles, The Dinner Party represents 1,038 women in history. 39 are represented by place settings, and 999 are inscribed into the ‘Heritage Floor’. The table is separated into three wings.

The first represents women from pre-history to Classical Rome, including names such as Judith (the slayer of Holofernes), Sappho (the Ancient Greek poet), Hatshepsut (the Ancient Egyptian royal who adopted the role as pharaoh while the official king was too young to rule) and Hypatia (the respected teacher and astronomer who made significant contributions in mathematics and philosophy). From this first wing alone, Chicago’s professor had been proven wrong.

The second wing is compiled of women who represent the period of Christianity to the Reformation. The wing includes Empress Theodora (born into the lowest class of the Byzantine Empire and eventually ruled over it with Justinian I as his intellectual and political equal) and Isabella d’Este (“The First Lady of the Renaissance”).

Reproductive organs do not dictate a person’s ability to contribute to the world

The final wing represents the American Revolution to the Women’s Revolution. The wing includes figures such as Sojourner Truth (abolitionist and suffragist), Caroline Herschel (the woman to discover a comet) and Margaret Sanger (pioneer of the struggle for reproductive freedom in the early 20th century). Each of these 39 women are symbolised on a 14-inch painted china plate with a vulva form that is individual to each woman. I find the use of vulvar forms to be interesting, as it challenges the misconception that women need to present in a masculine way to be taken seriously. Chicago proves that women have always been equal to men through their intellect, ambition and politics. Reproductive organs do not dictate a person’s ability to contribute to the world.

The ‘Heritage Floor’s’ purpose is to show “how many women had struggled into prominence or been able to make their ideas known”, as stated by Chicago. Ultimately, 3,000 names were discovered but only 999 were chosen. The Dinner Party is a perfect example of challenging institutional beliefs that have been accepted for centuries, and that only really benefit a particular demographic – the heterosexual white man. The impact of Judy Chicago’s work leaves an eternal influence and deserves more recognition in the 21st century. Who would you invite to your dinner party?