In an entirely different, more empowering, and certainly more amusing take on the Breast, the Getty has showcased Anne Gauldin's latex molds of thirteen breasts sewn into a pink 50's style waitress uniform.

Gauldin was apparently en route to grad school in New York when she hooked up with the Woman's Building in LA (this archive is at the Getty, and was the partial subject of WACK, a wonderful show at MoCA some years back), the Judy Chicago and sisters project which was the epicenter of rebellion against the male dominated art world.

The Waitresses became a performance art group which eventually had 14 members. Cofounder Jerri Allyn remembers the art school biases against women and says, ", nobody wanted to hear that I was waitressing my way through art school and that I felt like a piece of meat.”

This terrific dress tells a different tale--not just your little black dress. The team at Getty is working on conserving the fragile item--just as in real life, the breasts are sagging, discolored, and has traces of the women who wore it. I love that about it. It tells a story about us, one that we are telling ourselves.

Ready to Order? 1978, The Waitresses. Photo: Maria Karras. The Getty Research Institute, 2017.M.45. Gift of Jerri Allyn and Anne Gauldin, The Waitresses