Explore the Design details of this artwork, The Dinner Party.
The Dinner Party took six years and $250,000 to complete, not including volunteer labor. It began modestly as Twenty-Five Women Who Were Eaten Alive, a way in which Chicago could use her "butterfly-vagina" imagery and interest in china painting in a high-art setting. She soon expanded it to include 39 women arranged in three groups of 13. The triangular shape has long been a feminine symbol. The table is an equilateral triangle, to represent equality. The number 13 represents the number of people who were present at the Last Supper, an important comparison for Chicago, as the only people there were men. She developed the work on her own for the first three years before bringing in others. Over the next three years, over 400 people contributed to the work, most of them volunteers. About 125 were called "members of the project", suggesting long-term efforts, and a small group was closely involved with the project for the final three years, including ceramicists, needle-workers, and researchers. The project was organized according to what has been called "benevolent hierarchy" and "non-hierarchical leadership", as Chicago designed most aspects of the work and had the final control over decisions made.The 39 plates start flat and begin to emerge in higher relief toward the end of the chronology, meant to represent modern woman's increasing independence and equality. The work also uses supplementary written information such as banners, timelines, and a three-book exhibition publication to provide background information on each woman and the process of making the work.
china painting