The first time we went to the Brooklyn Museum was just so amazing!  For one thing, there is the iconic Georgia O’Keefe painting of the Brooklyn Bridge, but then of course there is one of my favorite art installations of all time – The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago.  The Dinner Party was a monumental creative undertaking that began in 1971. Judy and a large group of other artisans worked on it for a number of years, and the exhibit finally opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on March 14, 1979.

After traveling the country for many years, it is now permanently exhibited in the Elizabeth Sackler Center for Feminist Art, which is on the fourth floor of the Brooklyn Museum.

After passing beneath several banners, you enter a darkened room with the art work lit with spotlights.  The piece itself is constructed as a large triangular table that includes place settings for 39 important historical women from the Western Hemisphere.  The first “wing” includes women from pre-history to Rome, the second wing features women from Early Christianity to the Reformation, and the third wing has women of the time period “from the American Revolution to the Women’s Revolution.”

Beneath the table are triangular tiles that are inscribed with the names of another large number of women (999 to be exact) whose intellectual, spiritual, and cultural achievements over the centuries were important.

Unfortunately it seems that many of these women are largely forgotten by history and are unknown or underappreciated.   Standing in this room giving witness to the women who have gone before me, who have moved mountains that I have benefited from, I always feel a profound sense of gratitude.  Check out some of my favorite place settings – Sophia, Judith, Theodora, Hildegard of Bingen, Carolyn Herschel, and Elizabeth Blackwell – and let me know what you think.

 

Reference: Chicago, Judy, “The Dinner Party,” Merrell Publishers Limited, New York, NY, 2007.

Image: “Brooklyn Bridge,” Georgia O’Keefe, 1949, accession number 77.11, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY.

Photo Credit: “The Dinner Party,” Andy Hong.