The late 60's into the 70's was a time where men's work, as seen throughout all of history, was valued not only more than women's, but seen as the only kind of valid art there was. Women's art was either not seen in the mainstream, not mentioned, and therefore, in a way, did not exist. With this attachment of maleness and masculinity being prevalent within the genre of art, women's art became an invisible world where it was hard to know where women's art belonged, what women's art looked like, and if women even made art. Thanks to the help of Judy Chicago, as well as other feminist artists in the 60's/70's, the issue of women in art became one that was not only talked about, but demonstrated through feminist art.
Judy Chicago was trained at the California State College at Fresno where she mastered her art of sculpting, and was given the tools necessary to become the feminist artist she became/still is. Through her medium and her art, Chicago realized that she could not ignore herself as a woman in the art world and wanted to focus on expressing that idea through her sculptures. "She began to examine what it meant to be both a woman and an artist (Wacks, JWA Encyclopeda)," and through doing so, created pieces that spoke to celebrating and embracing the female body instead of trying to create the same images of male gaze that men were creating of women.
One of her most influential pieces is The Dinner Party ("the subject of countless articles and art history texts and is included in innumerable publications in diverse fields [JudyChicago.com].") in which Chicago creates a different plate of a flower/vegetable- each resembling a vagina- to signify important women in history. She uses different mediums to portray this piece such as sculpture, embroidery, and acrylics. The importance of this piece is not in its grandiosity, nor just in its homage to famous and important women in history, but also because of its emphasis of the differences in each "vagina" at the table. Each one is shaped differently, has different textures, colors, and even some have themes. This "otherness" from one another, this blatant difference in vaginas, not only speaks to wanting to create new sculpture, but also speaks to the individuality of each woman's body/vagina, and how beautiful each one can be through its difference. In other words, not every woman must be the same in personality to be beautiful and/or successful, nor does her vagina (the part that categorizes her as a woman) have to be a certain way in order to be accepted and embraced.
Now being in the 21st century, this feminist idea of acceptance of womanhood through art that Chicago focused on is just as pervasive now, if not more. With projects of women's bodies through drawings on social media sites, to sites photographing vaginas in the acceptance of the uniqueness of them, or even vagina-inspired jewelry, the topic of what it means to be a woman and art and what that art looks like, is still being heavily explored.
Dragon Fruit Vagina Pendant on http://www.vulvalovelovely.com/custom-orders/
Bibliography:
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson Inc., 1990.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/chicago-judy By Debra Wacks
http://www.judychicago.com/about/bio.php
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