Judy Chicago's Dinner Party at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Wing - Research

Judy Chicago's Dinner Party at the Brooklyn Museum's Elizabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art
For historical photos, visit Chicago's site: Artist Link and for overview, the Brooklyn Museum's site: Museum Link.

Elizabeth Sackler is a philanthropist and activist who has worked on behalf of Native American and prison populations.
She was the first woman Chairman of the Brooklyn Museum's Board of Trustees. Though a Sackler she has no affiliation with the scandal surrounding other family members. 

Judy Chicago, like Sackler, grew up in a liberal family in Chicago, IL.  Her father suffered for his progressive beliefs in the McCarthy era, dying young. Encouraged by her mother, Chicago made art from the time she was three and later attended UCLA and SAIC. As a graduate student, she painted vaginal forms. (all this from Wikipedia)

It gets really interesting here: "Chicago would also experiment with performance art, using fireworks and pyrotechnics to create "atmospheres", which involved flashes of coloured smoke being manipulated outdoors. Through this work she attempted to "feminize" and "soften" the landscape.^[16](Levin)

From Wikipedia: "Judy Chicago became aware of the sexism that was rampant in modern art institutions, museums, and schools while getting her undergraduate and graduate degree at UCLA in the 1960s. Ironically, she didn’t challenge this observation as an undergrad. In fact, she did quite the opposite by trying to match – both in her artwork and in her personal style –  what she thought of as masculinity in the artistic styles and habits of her male counterparts. Not only did she begin to work with heavy industrial materials, but she also smoked cigars, dressed “masculine”, and attended motorcycle shows.^[49] This awareness continued to grow as she recognized how society did not see women as professional artists in the same way they recognized men. Angered by this, Chicago channeled this energy and used it to strengthen her feminist values as a person and teacher."

"While most teachers based their lessons on technique, visual forms, and color, the foundation for Chicago’s teachings were on the content and social significance of the art, especially in feminism.^{[50}(keifer-boyd, karen)}"

"The art created in the Feminist Art Program and Womanhouse introduced perspectives and content about women’s lives that had been taboo topics in society, including the art world.^[53][54] In 1970 Chicago developed the Feminist Art Program at California State University, Fresno, and has implemented other teaching projects that conclude with an art exhibition by students such as Womanhouse with Miriam Schapiro at CalArts...", which Cal Arts students Mira Schor, Faith Wilding and others participated in, and I grew up highly aware of as a student in LA.

Also really interesting: "In the early 2000s, Chicago organized her teaching style into three parts preparation, process, and art-making.^[50] Each has a specific purpose and is crucial. During the preparation phase, students identify a deep personal concern and then research that issue. In the process phase, students gather together in a group to discuss the materials they plan on using and the content of their work. Finally, in the art-making phase, students find materials, sketch, critique, and produce art."

Having taught, now working independently, I see how the guild model, then the university system brought artists together, and organized them. Such systems make dialog and projects like the Dinner Party possible. Art centers also serve this purpose.

"Inspiration for The Dinner Party came from personal experience where Chicago found herself at a male dominated event. This event included highly educated men and women, however the men dominated the conversation and essence of the space. Chicago highlights important women that are often overlooked, giving credit to those who have stepped up for women's rights."

 Alice Walker was quoted in Hyperallergic as commenting, "Alice Walker, the author of “The Color Purple” and architect of the term “womanist,” was one of earlier critics of “The Dinner Party’s” racial dynamic, saying:

I was gratified … to learn that in the “Dinner Party” there was a place “set,” as it were, for black women. The illumination came when I stood in front of it. All the other plates are creatively imagined vaginas … The Sojourner Truth plate is the only one in the collection that shows-instead of a vagina — a face. In fact, three faces. … It occurred to me that perhaps white women feminists, no less than white women generally, cannot imagine that black women have vaginas."

"Chicago ... took action to teach women about their history. This action would become Chicago's masterpiece, The Dinner Party, now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.^[29] It took her five years and cost about $250,000 to complete.^[10] First, Chicago conceived the project in her Santa Monica studio: a large triangle, which measures 48-feet by 43-feet by 36-feet, consisting of 39 place settings.^[17] Each place setting commemorates a historical or mythical female figure, such as artists, goddesses, activists and martyrs. The embroidered table runners are stitched in the style and technique of the woman's time.^[30] "

Responding to criticisms of this work, Judy Chicago comments, "“At the time I was working on The Dinner Party, in the mid-1970s, there was little or no knowledge about any of these women. The prevailing point of view was that women had no history. It is important to remember that our research was done before the advent of computers, the Internet, or Google search.” (Hyperallergic)

The Hyperallergic article alludes to an exchange between Chicago and Esther Allen in 2018, published in the New York Review of Books: NYRB Link

Allen wrote, "Chicago contends that there was little or no knowledge about these women here in 1974–1979, while The Dinner Party was being created. That is debatable. To take only one case, Frida Kahlo: 1910–1954, the first solo retrospective of Kahlo’s work in this country, curated by Hayden Herrera, opened to acclaim in 1978 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago." (I recall seeing Kahlo's retrospective at UCSD in 1977.) Perhaps the best conclusion is Chicago's: "How unfortunate that women continue to feel the need to denigrate the work of their foremothers in order to acknowledge more contemporary contributions. We need to build upon each other’s achievements if we are ever to break the cycle of erasure that I tried to overcome through The Dinner Party."