Introduction
You are about to take a tour of one of the world's most influential pieces of feminist art- Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party!
Artist, Judy Chicago is known for many feminist art works and projects, but most famously for The Dinner Party. Chicago began work on The Dinner Party in 1974, it is a massive multimedia work of art that is meant to honor and preserve the history of women. It consists of a large triangular table with thirty-nine place settings, each representing a particular woman from history. Each setting includes an embroidered runner with the woman’s name on it, a gold chalice and utensils, and china-painted porcelain plates.
The Dinner Party was finished in 1979. On March 14, 1979 it was opened to the public at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Five thousand people attended the opening, and one hundred thousand people came to see it during the three months it was exhibiting. Later, The Dinner Party went to the Brooklyn Museum of Art where people lined up for as long as five hours to see it.
The Dinner Party is undoubtedly seen as one of the most important pieces of feminist art and even the beginning of feminist art. The work went into permanent housing at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2007, which is where you will be taking your virtual tour!
Judy Chicago, The Dinner Party, 1979
Task
Students will explore Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party by using the "360 virtual tour" feature on The Brooklyn Museum's Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art website. After thoroughly examining the piece using the virtual tour students will choose a woman to research on their own. The woman can be one from The Dinner Party or a woman of the student's choosing from history or current times. Students will then write a research paper about this woman's life and accomplishments. Students will also create a piece of art work to honor and represent this woman's memory and life.
Process
To start your exploration go to
The Brooklyn Museum Website for a virtual tour of The Dinner Party. Use your mouse to click around the art work and see it from different angles. You can click on a specific place setting to learn more about the woman it represents.
After exploring the thirty-nine women The Dinner Party represents, choose one to investigate further on your own, or think of a woman who is not in the project who you would like to research further. Write a short research paper (2-3 pages) on this woman's life and accomplishments. Explain why she is interesting or important to you as well. You will also create an art project to represent this woman. It can be any medium you choose. You may choose to represent the era she lived in, her personality, her profession, or anything else that is significant to her life.
Evaluation
Have a class discussion (see discussion prompts below). Each student will give a presentation on the woman they have chosen to research. Class will have a group critique of the art work created to represent the woman they are researching.
Have you ever heard of feminism? What have you heard about it? What misconceptions do you think exist about feminist?
How is feminist art different from any art that is made by women?
Is there a woman you know personally or a public figure you admire that you would want to be honored and/or remembered? Why? How would you represent this woman using symbols?
Why do you think Judy Chicago made The Dinner Party? What is it’s meaning? Do you think it is an important piece of art? Why or why not?
Conclusion
There is nothing that can compare to seeing a work of art in person, it is an amazing experience that can be emotional, influential, inspiring, and even life changing. However, due to geography, time, and financial reasons among others, we often do not get a chance to see many works of art that we love or want to learn about in person. The wonderful thing about technology is that it has made it possible for us to view many of these artworks in ways that are much more interactive and 3-dimensional than a photograph in a book.I hope that you have learned, discovered, and been inspired while exploring The Dinner Party via virtual tour.
Credits
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/dinner_party/
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