The Dinner Party

The Dinner Party is a monumental installation by Judy Chicago, produced over five years (1974–1979) with the assistance of hundreds of volunteers. The work takes the form of a massive triangular banquet table with 39 elaborate place settings, each honoring a significant woman from history or mythology — from primordial goddess figures to Georgia O'Keeffe. Each setting features a hand-painted china plate with vivid, sculptural vulvar imagery, a set of ceramic cutlery and a chalice, and an intricately embroidered runner executed in needlework styles appropriate to the honored woman's era. The table rests on the Heritage Floor, composed of over 2,000 white porcelain tiles inscribed in gold with the names of 999 additional notable women.

First exhibited in 1979 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, it subsequently toured 16 venues across six countries, drawing some 15 million visitors. Its unapologetic celebration of female sexuality and its reclamation of traditionally feminine craft techniques — ceramics, china-painting, and embroidery — as legitimate fine art provoked both passionate admiration and fierce criticism. After years in storage, the installation found a permanent home in 2007 at the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art in the Brooklyn Museum, where it remains one of the most iconic works of feminist art ever created.