Judy Chicago’s Last Supper

Marcin Giżycki

Abstract

In 1979 American artist Judy Chicago presented in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art her art installation The Dinner Party dedicated to 1038 women from the history and mythology of the world. The work, which today can be seen at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, consists of three long tables arranged into a triangle, on which 39 places, marked with names embroidered in golden thread, are set for the women. Among the honoured are: Hatshepsut, Sappho, Saint Brygid of Kildare, Empress Theodora, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Petron­illa de Meath, Artemisia Gentileschi, Susan Anthony, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf and Georgia O’Keeffe. Further 999 names are written, also with golden paint, on the tiled floor. The work immediately provoked turbulent reactions and disputes even in feminist circles. It was criticized, among others, for poor representation of women from outside the Euro-American culture. Most negative reactions, however, were caused by designs on plates clearly evocative of the female sex organs. Today, however, The Dinner Party is regarded as one of the most important and earliest (at least on this scale) manifestations of feminism in art. The entire installation process was documented on the film by Johanna Demetrakas, testifying not only to the great contribution of the team of Chicago’s associates in the finished work, but also the birth of feminist consciousness in the group.