Western Art History

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Recommended: Feminist art in the 20th century

December 7, 2013 Topics in Western Art History Mikash Exam Paper The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago is an icon of feminist art that represents one thousand and thirty eight women in history. Nine hundred and ninety nine names are inscribed in the Heritage Floor on which the table rests while the other thirty-nine women are represented by place settings. It is an epic piece of work comprised of a triangular table divided by three wings, each wing being forty-eight feet long. This piece of artwork explores numerous media, which includes Chinese painting, ceramics and an array of needle and fiber techniques. All these media are used for one major purpose and that is to honor women throughout history in Western Civilization. Judy Chicago is very daring with the dinner party project and at the time of its creation, criticized by the art critics, yet, by others in the community, Chicago’s work was given prestige of setting a precedent. Particularly striking were the images that she painted on the woman’s plates. Every plate has an image made to look like a butterfly but in a way that makes it also represent the woman’s vulva. Judy Chicago literally places the vulva in the foreground on the society’s plate in a clear way, way she encourages the society to confront with women’s sexuality. She invites the society to acknowledge itself that the entire sexual isolation that has removed the female in many aspects of society and has pushed many women into the background for years is a myth. The major goal of this piece of artwork by Judy Chicago was to end the omission cycle that was ongoing then, where women’s importance in history was diminished. Judy Chicago wanted to do something profound to reverse the isolation of women. She a... ... middle of paper ... ....wikipedia.org/wiki/Homi_K._Bhabha. "Mimicry, Ambivalence, and Hybridity." Postcolonial Studies Emory. Accessed December 07, 2013. http://postcolonialstudies.emory.edu/mimicry-ambivalence-and-hybridity/. "Moderna Museet." Judy Chicago -. Accessed December 07, 2013. http://www.modernamuseet.se/en/Moderna-Museet/About/Research/In-the-shadow-of/Judy-Chicago/. "Post-structuralism." Merriam-Webster. Accessed December 07, 2013. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/post-structuralism. "There Are No Others." There Are No Others. Accessed December 06, 2013. http://therearenoothers.wordpress.com/2011/12/28/othering-101-what-is-othering/. "Yiannis Gabriel: The Other and Othering - A Short Introduction." Yiannis Gabriel: The Other and Othering - A Short Introduction. Accessed December 07, 2013. http://www.yiannisgabriel.com/2012/09/the-other-and-othering-short.html.

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