Feminist Statements in The Dinner Party (1979) by Judy Chicago

Summary of This Article (2025 update)

Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party remains a landmark of feminist art, celebrated for its ambition and enduring influence. Created between 1974 and 1979, the installation honours 1,038 women from history, using a striking triangular table and intricate place settings. Chicago’s work elevated domestic crafts like embroidery and ceramics, challenging the male-dominated art world and reclaiming women’s narratives. When first unveiled, it sparked fierce debate, with some critics dismissing its anatomical imagery and others praising its boldness. Over time, its popular appeal grew, drawing millions and inspiring generations.

In the post Me Too era, The Dinner Party’s legacy is both celebrated and questioned. Many see it as a vital act of reclamation, making women’s achievements visible in a society that often erases them. However, current audiences also critique its essentialist focus and limited diversity, reflecting the need for more inclusive feminist histories. Today, Chicago is recognised as a pioneering artist whose work continues to provoke discussion about gender, power, and representation. The Dinner Party stands as both a product of its time and a catalyst for ongoing conversations about whose stories are told and how art can drive social change.

“From early on, age five or so, I set my sights on becoming the kind of artist who would make a contribution to art history.” -Judy Chicago

Introduction

Judy Chicago’s most famous and nationally recognised painting, entitled The Dinner Party, is one of the most powerful feminist statements of her time (Gerhard, 2013 ). During the 1970’s, Chicago facilitated in cultivating Feminist art, a movement that endeavoured to educate and bring prominence to females in a male-dominated society. Created in 1974-1979, the mixed media art installation, The Dinner Party, was a monumental installation which transcended beyond the art world itself (Hayward, 1998 ).

The work honours and pays tribute to women from history whom Chicago believed had been overlooked or marginalised. Chicago’s art shocked both the art world of the seventies and the feminist movement of America, as it “brought ideals of feminist self-affirmation, the celebration of female creativity, the rehabilitation of forgotten women in history, and the reconstruction of a female tradition in art” (D.Garrard, 1992 ). The Dinner Party, by Judy Chicago, directly reflects the ever-changing movement of feminism and female empowerment in the 1970s.

Background on Judy Chicago

Judy Chicago was born on the 20th July 1939 in Chicago. During the late 1950’s, Chicago obtained her master’s in painting and sculpture at UCLA. In Chicago’s early twenties, she was one of the small number of women to join the growing art scene around the Ferus Gallery (D.Garrard, 1992 ). Throughout Chicago’s studies in graduate school and in the first decade of professional practice, she was constantly being demoralised by her predominantly male peers and mentors.

In attempts to be accepted by the male-dominant art world, Chicago transformed her own physical aesthetic to embody a more masculine persona. This involved wearing big boots, smoking cigars and shaving her hair (Chansky, 2014 ). Her artwork during this time was being blatantly ignored by critics, as she was being relentlessly told that women could not be artists. These strong misogynistic beliefs during this time, radicalised both her and her artwork. Rather than adjust her philosophies to suit the male-dominated art world, Chicago wanted to pave the way in changing social and political standards for many women during that time. She wanted to break away from the rigid structures of the art world by displaying the developing ideas of feminism and the disassociation from stereotypical representations of gender.

Feminism’s Second Wave

The second wave of feminism was occurring during Chicago’s time. This major wave of feminism occurred in the nineteen-sixties lasting through to the eighties. During this wave, concerns surrounding female inferiority and gender inequality in the home and workplace, further inclusion of African American women’s rights, and major policy change regarding reproductive rights were challenged.

Nutured through Civil Rights-Backed Feminism

Chicago was performing in a particular era (1968-1971) where the whole of America was coming alive with the feminist movement which was a follow-on from the civil rights movement. This revolution was not just the kind of female centric vision but a form of empowerment. The seventies assured a historic change and it introduced for the first time the possibility of women divulging their own experiences.

Before this time, there was an innate absence of women experiences, perceptions and point of view. Chicago refuted the norms given to women by set social standards through the power of art. The innate influence art had on redirecting and breaking away from the binary society constructed for each gender throughout history, was monumental.

Chicago’s artwork is an intrinsic reflection of how far society has come from the once bias and discriminatory world. As both art and feminism continue to strengthen simultaneously, the two have persisted in being powerful influences for social, political and economic change now and in the future. Judy Chicago set out to teach women’s history to a broad and diverse audience, to test the art world to see how women working at the same level of ambition that men had worked historically would be supported and received.

Matriculation at Fresno State

In 1970, Chicago founded the Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno. This program was the first feminist art program in the United States which acted as a catalyst for feminist art and art education. In 1974, after numerous years of forming several feminist art programs in Southern California, Chicago resigned from teaching, ready to revive her own artwork. This enforced her determination to make tribute to women’s history which opens up a new critical space to challenge the gender inequality of the time. Judy Chicago is considered as one of the first-generation feminist artists, who’s work is the realization of an uncompromisingly grand vision, inviting both awe and identification. The innovative way Chicago’s art reflected through the eyes of a women made her work so distinctive.

Premiering The Dinner Party

Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in March 1979. It ultimately presents a ceremonial banquet which takes form as a massive triangular table laid with 39 places. Plates, many decorated with symbolic vaginas mark the guest’s places. Chicago sought to create a place at the table for women. She represented female genitalia in her tributes creating what some have dubbed full-frontal feminism, a practice she continues today. The Dinner Party deals with female agency where the plates are symbolic to this vision. They rise up and attempt to get off the plates. Chicago challenged norms and the rarefied art world. 

Intended as a reinterpretation of ‘the Last Supper from the point of view of those who had done the cooking throughout history, it uses the traditional crafts of ceramics, china painting and embroidery practised in recent times particularly by women. The installation utilises some of the most familiar objects and experiences of women’s lives to illuminate that history through the domestic ritual of serving food. Each setting honours an individual woman, historical or mythical, whose name is embroidered on the front face of her table runner.

Both the imagery and iconography of The Dinner Party present a thoughtfully worked out and consistent vision of women’s history. Chicago thereby asks us to consider seriously the value of women’s culture and women’s historical contribution. Moreover, we must ask ourselves probing questions about the nature and meaning of that past for us today and about the ways in which it has been traditionally perceived.

Her thoughts on The Dinner Party

When asked which women of The Dinner Party she most closely identified with, Chicago observes as follows:

“I identify with all of them; I think they all represent some aspect of me, and of women’s lives and condition, which I identify with totally… They are aspects of myself… What do I know of the person? I take all this historical material and I weave it together. I weed through it and I take out of it what I can relate to, and what I can identify with and then I make an image.

“The result is some of the person and a lot of me. But then, of course, it begins to take on an identity outside of me… When the piece is done, all of a sudden it will exist outside of me and it- they will be personages and people will identify with them.’

What The Dinner Party Came to Symbolise

The Dinner Party should be seen as a symbolic assemblage of women worthies representing most periods of Western history.

Response to the work has been mixed. Many have praised the work, including art historian Susan Caldwell. Caldwell wrote that “it produces the sort of chill that comes only from beautiful works of strong conviction and conception.” American curator and art critic Lucy Lippard said of the work, “My own initial experience was strongly emotional… The longer I spent with the piece, the more I became addicted to its intricate detail and hidden meanings.”

Some critics, however, hold negative opinions of the work, with American art critic Hilton Kramer calling the work “vulgar” and “crass”, and artist Cornelia Parker stating “we’re all reduced to vaginas, which is a bit depressing. It’s almost like the biggest piece of victim art you’ve ever seen. And it takes up so much space. I quite like the idea of trying to fit it in some tiny bin – not a very feminist gesture but I don’t think the piece is either.”

Setbacks for Judy Chicago as a Result of The Dinner Party

Judy Chicago encountered a tremendous amount of resistance through her work The Dinner Party. The Dinner Party was very confusing for a lot of yeas because ostensibly, it was a huge successive. However, during its time in the spotlight, Chicago lost everything; her studio, staff, her marriage, she was in debt, she had no opportunities. This just goes to show that normally, after an artist’s big museum show, they are usually swamped with offers and opportunities. However, Chicago had the complete opposite. 

The work has also been criticised for having a racial bias. Writer Esther Allen notes that the work excludes Latin American women like Frida Kahlo. Additionally, author Alice Walker notes that Sojourner Truth’s plate is the only one that has three faces instead of a vagina. Possibly, she proposes, because “white women feminists, no less than white women generally, cannot imagine that black women have vaginas.”

Legacy

It took 20 years after the premiering of the Dinner Party for the New York Times to stop referring to The Dinner Party as genitalia on plates and finally start talking about a history of women in Western civilisation. Chicago did not feel that the work was in any aspect provocative. She did not believe there to be any reason that female agency or female sexual agency should be any more proactive than the images we see by male artists all the time. Despite the fact that male artists have been creating female nudes for centuries, the work was considered controversial when the dinner party first toured Canada in the early 80s museums and galleries had to extend their hours attendance records were broken everywhere.

Throughout Judy Chicago’s career, she issued a critique of the way women’s history had been neglected and also of the male-dominated art world. Since Chicago began her career, there have been significant changes in the sense that there are many more women and artists of colour showing.

References for The Dinner Party and Feminism

• Chansky, R. A. (2014 ). When Words Are Not Enough. Narrating Power and Femininity Through the Visual Language of Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party, 51-77.
• D.Garrard, N. B. (1992 ). The Expanding Discourse Feminism and Art History. New York: HarperCollins .
• Gardner-Huggett, J. (2014 ). Woman’s Art Journal Vol. 35. Philadelphia: Old City Publishing.
• Gerhard, J. F. (2013 ). Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and the Power of Popular Feminism, 1970-2007. Philadelphia: Old City Publishing.
• Hayward, P. (1998 ). Picture This Media Representations of Visual Art and Artists. Bedfordshire: University of Luton Press.
• Hodge, S. (2017 ). Modern Art in Detail. Thames & Hudson.

Updated References: Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party

A–F

• Barnes & Noble (n.d.) The Dinner Party by Jane F. Gerhard. Available at: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-dinner-party-jane-f-gerhard/1113876428 (Accessed: 25 June 2025).
• Brooklyn Museum (n.d.) The Dinner Party Today: Judy Chicago. Available at: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/stories/the-dinner-party-today-judy-chicago (Accessed: 25 June 2025).
• Fiveable (n.d.) Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party. Available at: https://library.fiveable.me/women-in-art-history/unit-6/judy-chicago-the-dinner-party/study-guide/oVtDJWU1wUAjojhN (Accessed: 25 June 2025).

G–N

• Judychicago.com (n.d.) The Dinner Party Artwork Gallery. Available at: https://judychicago.com/gallery/the-dinner-party/dp-artwork/ (Accessed: 25 June 2025).
• LATimes (1990) The Battle of Chicago: Art: Feminist artist Judy Chicago fires back at critics who call her ‘Dinner Party’ obscene and withdraws her gift of it to a university. 12 October. Available at: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-10-12-ca-2100-story.html (Accessed: 25 June 2025).
• MyArtBroker (n.d.) The Legacy of Judy Chicago: Revisiting The Dinner Party. Available at: https://www.myartbroker.com/opinion/articles/legacy-judy-chicago-the-dinner-party (Accessed: 25 June 2025).

N–Z

• 1st Art Gallery (n.d.) The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago. Available at: https://www.1st-art-gallery.com/article/the-dinner-party-by-judy-chicago/ (Accessed: 25 June 2025).
• Nasty Women Writers (n.d.) Feminist Artist Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party: Celebrating Women Across Time. Available at: https://www.nastywomenwriters.com/feminist-artist-judy-chicagos-the-dinner-party-celebrating-women-across-time/ (Accessed: 25 June 2025).
• Smithsonian Magazine (2019) Major Judy Chicago Retrospective Will Look Beyond ‘Dinner Party’. Available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/major-judy-chicago-retrospective-will-look-beyond-dinner-party-180972706/ (Accessed: 25 June 2025).
• Windy City Times (2008) Feminist Judy Chicago’s Over for Dinner? Available at: https://windycitytimes.com/2008/04/16/feminist-judy-chicagos-over-for-dinner/ (Accessed: 25 June 2025).