With my early work I got eviscerated by my male professors, and so you learned to disguise your impulses, as many women have done. And thats definitely changed.
Judy ChicagoRead
Because we are denied knowledge of our history, we are deprived of standing upon each other's shoulders and building upon each other's hard earned accomplishments. Instead we are condemned to repeat what others have done before us and thus we continually reinvent the wheel. The goal of The Dinner Party is to break this cycle.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the importance of understanding history to learn from past achievements and avoid repeating mistakes.
Judy Chicago emphasizes that a lack of historical knowledge robs individuals of the opportunity to build on each other's successes, leading to a repetitive cycle of mistakes and missed opportunities. By promoting awareness of history, projects like The Dinner Party aim to break this cycle, encouraging individuals to learn from those who came before them instead of starting from scratch.
Themes
HistoryKnowledgeLearningAccomplishmentLegacy
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on innovation, one might reference this quote to underline the importance of historical knowledge in progress.
More from Judy Chicago
All quotes →I am trying to make art that relates to the deepest and most mythic concerns of human kind and I believe that, at this moment of history, feminism is humanism.
Judy ChicagoRead
Once I knew that I wanted to be an artist, I had made myself into one. I did not understand that wanting doesn't always lead to action. Many of the women had been raised without the sense that they could mold and shape their own lives, and so, wanting to be an artist (but without the ability to realize their wants) was, for some of them, only an idle fantasy, like wanting to go to the moon.
Judy ChicagoRead
Because men have a history, it is difficult for them to imagine what it is like to grow up without one, or the sense of personal expansion that comes from discovering that we women have a worthy heritage. Along with pride often comes rage – rage that one has been deprived of such a significant knowledge.
Judy ChicagoRead
Ah, well, do I wish that we lived in a world where gender didn't figure so prominently? Of course. Do I even think about myself as a woman when I go to make art? Of course not.
Judy ChicagoRead
Even if I am simply one more woman laying one more brick in the foundation of a new and more humane world, it is enough to make me rise eagerly from my bed each morning and face the challenge of breaking the historic silence that has held women captive for so long.
Judy ChicagoRead
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