Pharaohs, Queens, and Goddesses

This exhibition is the inaugural biographical gallery show of a series in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Presented in tandem with The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago, the exhibition is dedicated to powerful female pharaohs, queens, and goddesses from Egyptian history. The central object of the exhibition is an important granite head from the Brooklyn Museum collection of Hatshepsut, the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1539–1292 B.C.E.), and one of the 39 women represented with a plate at The Dinner Party. Hatshepsut is featured alongside other women and goddesses from Egyptian history, including queens Cleopatra, Nefertiti, and Tiye and the goddesses Sakhmet, Mut, Neith, Wadjet, Bastet, Satis, and Nephthys—many of whom are featured on The Dinner Party‘s tiles. By incorporating multiple objects from the Museum’s extraordinary Egyptian collection, the exhibition encourages viewers to make visual and historical connections with the Museum’s long-term installation Egypt Reborn, which has additional objects on view pertaining to Pharaohs, Queens, and Goddesses.

This exhibition is co-curated by Maura Reilly, Ph.D., Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum, and Edward Bleiberg, Curator of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art, Brooklyn Museum.