“Over the years, I’ve watched a lot of people get commissions to make dinner plates and I always thought, ‘like excuse me?’” Judy Chicago said recently. The artist, of course, is best known for her massive feminist art installation The Dinner Party, which features 39 hand-painted ceramic plates representing an equal number of famous women. Somehow, she’s never been asked to reproduce them.
Chicago was speaking at a dinner at Brooklyn’s City Point complex, with guests sitting around a triangular table that purposely evoked the iconic work. At each place setting was a bone china plate based on designs from The Dinner Party, released this week by the Prospect NY.
It’s the first time Chicago has made functional plates based on her most famous work. The limited-edition collection includes four of the original designs, specifically the one’s symbolizing Queen Elizabeth I of England ($135), the women of the Amazon ($135), the Primordial Goddess ($155), and the ancient Greek poet Sappho ($155). The reverse of each plate features a written text by the artist about the subject. Read more