Post 5-Judy Chicago

Judy Chicago born Judith Cohen is a mixed-media artist known for her feminist work during a time when there was no outlet or drive for feminist art. Chicago, a teacher, as well as a writer, hoped that art would include the history of women that so much already well-known art in the canonical works of history have left out. Perhaps her most famous piece is a permanent exhibit in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art wing in the Brooklyn Museum, one of the few museums in the United States that features self-proclaimed feminist work. Chicago’s piece is called The Dinner Party--a large triangle that is perceived as a table, with 13 place settings on each side. Each place setting features a gold chalice and the name of a famous woman in American history who has helped women and their struggle in some way, such as Sojourner Truth and Georgia O’Keefe. The table’s shape is a symbol of the vagina in Western culture and the 13 place settings are a play on The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci which did not include any women, an example of Chicago’s point about women’s invisibility in art. Chicago uses mixed media materials and perhaps that is of significance. It may have been a conscious choice of the artist to combine certain materials (read: ceramic, porcelain, and textile) because of these materials’ associations to the “feminine” or woman. Ceramic and porcelain is found in the kitchen, a place traditionally reserved for women and textile is very much in the domestic women’s work of sewing clothing. Only recently have people used plastic plates in their homes-- traditionally plates are made from ceramic and porcelain. If mixed media uses materials most readily accessible, or based on what is current in the art world, then women would most likely have these materials accessible based on the idea that women are tied to the kitchen and dining area.