BROOKLYN, N.Y. – The 1970’s controversial, feminist, erotic art piece, “ The Dinner Party,” by Judy Chicago officially opened on March 22, at its permanent address at the Brooklyn Museum. Attended by thousands of invited guests, including project fund raisers, workers of the exhibition, national art gallery and museum curators, celebrities, and the IAIA CHRONICLE.

“The Dinner Party” was first exhibited in San Francisco at the Museum of Modern Arts in 1979. Ceramic, porcelain, and textile dnner plates in the shape of the vulva were offensive to some. After the San Francisco exhibition, “The Dinner Party” was expected to tour major art galleries and museums. However, it was banned from the U.S. art world and blacklisted because of the imagery on the plates.

“Astonishingly, it brought over 100,000 people through the San Francisco doors,” said Jan Du Bois, French tapestry weaver from Santa Fe. Du Bois is one of the 500 women who worked on “The Dinner Party” project in the 1970’s.

“This shocked everybody. We did not realize how popular it would be,” Du Bois said.

“They (art critics) went crazy over it. They thought it was not art but pornographic,” Du Bois said. “We had no idea how threatening this piece would be. Therefore it went around to alternative art galleries and museums for decades. It did show privately in the Brooklyn Museum.”

Permanent Housing Is “A Miracle”

“The Dinner Party” spent the last 30 years between storage and alternative places. Six years ago the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation and Brooklyn Museum announced it would be permanently housed on the fourth floor of the Brooklyn Museum.

“It’s a miracle that “The Dinner Party” got permanently housed at the Brooklyn Museum,” Du Bois said. “We have to stand by all of these people to support them in what they have done.”

In 1974, Judy Chicago started “The Dinner Party,” a collaborative effort by women who helped complete her project. This took five years.

“It was her wa, and we all believed it was her way,” Du Bois said.

Women’s Historical Achievements

“The Dinner Party” acknowledges significant women’s achievement throughout history. It is a take on the “Last Supper.” The table is set in a triangular shape.

“The upside down triangle in ancient symbol represents the feminine,” Du Bois said. Each side of the triangle has a place setting for 13 women, a total of 39 places. The number “13” is a significant number as there were 13 places at the “Last Supper,” and 13 represents the witches coven.

According to Du Bois, the placement of plates is symbolic of how women have been eaten up by the patriachal system. “The runners strewn together represent each woman’s individual life’s work,” Du Bois said.

Three wings that make up the triangle represent time. Wing One begins from prehistory starting with the Primordial Goddess to the Roman Empire, marking the fall of women’s power by Hypatia. Hypatia (375 – 415) was the first woman to make substantial contributions to the development of mathematics. She was executed as she was a woman and pagan.

Wing Two represents women’s fight for equal rights from the beginning of Christianity through the epoch of Reformation. The first plate starts with Marcella (325 – 410), a saint in the Roman Catholic Church who dedicated herself to women’s religion, community and simple life purposes, and ends with Anna van Schurman (1607 – 1678). Schurman was well educated and prolific in languages. She corresponded with prominent scholars worldwide, which added women’s perspective to psychology.

Wing Three addresses the American Revolution and individual creative expression, starting with Ann Hutchinson (1591 – 1643), who was trained in theology by her father, a minister. She spoke to hundreds in the Puritan church and was eventually put on trial and excommunicated as she was “more man than woman” (in her outspokenness). The wing finishes with Georgia O’Keefe (1887 – 1986), a significant artist who drew “erotic feminine” language form.

Du Bois’ Weavings

Du Bois’ involvement with “The Dinner Party” started in the fall of 1976 to July 1978.

“I had read her (Judy Chicago’s) book “Through the Flower,” and had seen her work. I wanted to work with her,” Du Bois said. She moved to Los Angeles to work with Chicago.

“I met Chicago and told her I wanted to be a part of this,” Du Bois said. “Chicago asked if I could do needle work. ‘No, I’m a weaver. Can’t you do weaving?’” A week later Chicago gave Du Bois “a crack at it.”

“We were not paid for the work we did on ‘The Dinner Party,’” Du Bois said. She received $60 a week from unemployment benefits and lived on beans and rice.

“I was very happy,” Du Bois said. “Every night I worked on ‘The Dinner Party,’ I slept on the floor at a friend’s place since I did not have gas money to drive home.”

“Chicago was in charge of everything. If she didn’t want it, that was it! It was her baby,” Du Bois said. “We all helped give birth to her baby!”

“My first project was weaving the runner for the ‘Snake Goddess.’ It was an amazing experience since I lived on the Island of Crete once upon a time,” Du Bois said. Chicago said it was perfect and all the colors were right. “I also worked on Marcella’s shirt. Marcella is the beginning of the second wing.”

Chicago came to Du Bois with the Hypatia idea. “I had to research Hypatia of Alexandria. Hypatia was also an astronomer and philosopher. Her life was tragically ended by a band of Christian monks who brutally beat her, then dragged her body to a church where they mutilated her flesh and tore off her limbs,” Du Bois said.

It took Du Bois one year to complete Hypatia. The piece is very detailed and symbolic to the image of her life.

Herstory Recognized

At the opening exhibition of “The Dinner Party,” guests admired the detail and colors woven into Hypatia. Ruth Downer, 86, Brooklyn resident was very excited about “The Dinner Party” being housed at the Brooklyn Museum.

“This is my third time seeing ‘The Dinner Party.’ Once in Brooklyn, then in Chicago,” said Downer. “It makes me so proud knowing ‘The Dinner Party’ finally has a home. Women’s herstory is finally being recognized!”

“The Dinner Party” for the women is her-storical as women were written out of the history books. “‘The Dinner Party’ was meant to end the ongoing cycle of omission in which women were written out of the historical records,” Chicago said.

“The Dinner Party” Brooklyn Museum, © Judy Chicago (Photo: © Aislinn Weidele for Polshek Partnership Architects)
Copyright © 2007 IAIA Chronicle