Her monumental ensemble piece, The Dinner Party, made up of 39 place settings, each commemorating a female historical or mythological figure, was emblematic of a burgeoning political consciousness that was to transform the art world. It is only in the latter half of this century that women have begun to exert a collective and visible influence on the visual arts. Their public battle for inclusion alongside their private quest for self-expression parallels the experiences of women around the world as they discovered the women's liberation movement. Through feminism, these artists developed a new understanding of how women come to see and be seen, and a way to illuminate the world that was at once political, documentary and interpretive. Perhaps the nature of female creativity is such that, unlike men's, it cannot exist alone, outside of its social context.
Feminism is, after all, a movement that blurs the personal with the political.
The Dinner Party is overtly feminist - political in every sense. A quarter of a century on, the work itself and contemporary reactions to it seem entirely of their time. The blithe, uncomplicated spirit of celebration. The blind assumption that all things female are good. Righteous wrangling over the poor representation of black women around the table.