Gastronomy in Art

Exhibition 30 June – 21 September 2007

25 June 2007

From 30 June - 21 September 2007, Artcurial Exposition will be staging an exhibition on a major theme in art history: Gastronomy.

Exchanges between art and food have never been richer since the advent of ‘fooding,’ embodying the creative research of today’s chefs. Contemporary artists look to food as a source of inspiration for their work, using it as a medium much like oils or pastel.

This new passion has its roots in a lengthy tradition. Art down the centuries bears the mark of how artists treated food and how food was consumed in different types of society.

Tables, dishes and food were long represented in religious scenes for their symbolic value. During the golden age of Flemish painting, food was showcased in sumptuous still lifes then, over the following centuries, in bourgeois interiors and finally, closer to the present, in Pop Art’s celebration of the food industry.

The exhibition seeks to confront works of art of different periods, expressing all aspects of the relationship between human beings and food, cuisine and gastronomy.

From 17th century Dutch painters down to Keith Haring’s graffiti, the exhibition Gastronomy in Art offers an in-depth exploration of a universal theme—and promises a tasty treat all summer long!

Art on the tip of the tongue

The exhibition is designed as a Taste Trail through paintings, sculpture and video installations, arranged like the menu when preparing a meal.

Where else to buy food but at the market? The Allegory of Autumn—View of the Weimarkt in Frankfurt, painted by Lucas von Walckenborgh & Georg Flegel in 1594, takes us to one in affluent Flanders at the end of the 16th century.

Another lively place to meet people and exchange ideas is the greengrocer’s—as frequented by Maximilien Luce in his Rue des Abbesses—L’Epicerie. Without their wheeled trolleys, markets would not have become what they are today, especially supermarkets—a source of inspiration for Philippe Coignée, Sylvie Fleury’s Le Caddy, and Claude Closky’s Papier de Supermarché.

The kitchen, with its smells, sounds and colors, is the heart of most homes—and their creative laboratory. Take Jesus Visiting Martha & Mary, an early 17th century religious scene by Erasmus Quellinus & Adrian van Utrecht; Picasso’s Still Life with Apple from 1914, a fine example of the development of his formal research; a genuine refrigerator decorated by Jean Cocteau; or an Arman trashcan.

Whether the table is set in the dining-room or outside, a good meal yields collective joy—as captured by the sumptuous painting The Parable of the Royal Wedding. Gaston Ballande painted his Déjeuner sur l’Herbe in purest Impressionist tradition. Jacquet and Spoerri went further in evoking mealtime atmosphere. Yet lunch may also be no more than a sandwich, as Keith Haring showed with his gouache Meatlof Drawing for Meal on Weels (1987), painted in aid of Meals On Wheels (the USA’s first association for distributing food to the needy) and inspired by the all-American “meat loaf.”

Menus proceed in time-honored fashion from starter to dessert, via the main course and the cheese. Osias Beert’s Still Life with Oysters and Glasses of Wine expresses all the virtuosity of Flemish realism, with precious trinkets and dishes painted in vivid, luminous colors against a dark, neutral background. To Natasha Lesueur, food is an integral part of man thanks to its perishable, vegetable nature, as shown in the photographs from her Aspics series. Manguin’s Still Life with Oysters and Vik Muniz’s caviar photographs pursue the idea.

Maurice Rheims used to raise a typically humorous eyebrow about being obliged to finish a meal with a dessert. Nevertheless, on the taste scale, cakes and sweets come last, something that did not escape Tom Wesselman, Andy Warhol, Sandy Skoglund, Erro or Will Coton, whose mountains of cakes and forests of lollipops form childlike, mouth-watering landscapes tinged with eroticism, that invite both touch and taste. Philippe Mayaux’s cake-objects have plastic rather than edible appeal, underlining art’s utilitarian and decorative function when compared to reality.

The final room in the exhibition, devoted to sugar and its derivatives, smells of chocolate and orange, courtesy of Senteurs.

In line with this fusion of art and gastronomy, the exhibition is partnered by the Transversal restaurant at the MAC/VAL, which will be concocting a new dish to mark the exhibition. The Transversal is an experimental footbridge between plastic art and gastronomy, where every kind of interaction can be envisaged. This partnership provides a lip-smacking echo to the works presented in the exhibition, with lectures and tasting sessions organized at the MAC/VAL.

The Dassault Group— partners to the exhibition Gastronomy in Art

The Dassault Group, market-leaders in civil and military aeronautical engineering, has expertise in a number of other sectors: three-dimensional software programs with Dassault Systèmes; integrated electronic systems; electric vehicles; and the press. The Group is perpetually striving to innovate, investing in sectors that engender progress, and is at the forefront of technological advance, thanks notably to its links with research institutes and universities around the world.

The Dassault Group’s commitment to corporate sponsorship

The human element has always been an essential part of the Group’s values: the companies within the Group have developed thanks to the quality of their men and women. The Dassault Group is keen to foster social progress with a structured approach, promoting its core values—passion, innovation, excellence and commitment—by supporting projects that benefit society. The Dassault Group thus contributes to improving the quality of life by supporting associations linked to the hospital world, by helping medicine, and by financing research programs.
As partner to the exhibition Gastronomy in Art, the Group wishes to pay tribute to the Association Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque and its remarkable achievements.

A proportion of ticket sales will be allocated to the association, and the sum raised will help Mécénat Chirurgie Cardiaque stage heart surgery more frequently, and give more and more children the chance to enjoy a life of greater serenity, free of the constraints of illness.

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Exhibition

From 30 June to 21 September

Open Daily 11am – 6pm
(groups by appointment)

Hôtel Dassault
7 rond-point des Champs Elysées
F-75008 Paris

Admission fee

 

Admission: €5

 

 

Reduced Price : €2,5 for students and children older than 5
Children under 5: free

Press

Colonnes

Phone +33 1 42 60 70 10

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