Sexual Politics1996

Within the politically charged debates of the feminist art movement, Judy Chicago's Dinner Party has been a focal point of controversy. A monumental table in the form of an equilateral triangle, The Dinner Party honors 1,038 women in Western history, 39 if whom are represented at the table itself by elaborate needlework runners and ceramic plates with centralized, often vulvar, motifs.

When the piece was first shown, at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1979, it drew the largest audience in that museum's history. Although it was praised by many feminists, it also engendered vehemently negative responses, from mainstream art critics and feminist commentators alike.

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The essays in this volume, which is published in conjunction with an exhibition organized by UCLA at the Armand...