Food and Shelter

CHAPTER SIX

Food

Securing the Food SupplyStoring and Serving Food

Art that Glorifies FoodArt and the Act of Eating

CHAPTER SIX

Hall of Bulls, c.15,000 BCE Lascaux, Dordogne, FranceEarly people hunted wild animals and gathered berries, seeds, fruits and plants for food.

Securing the Food Supply

Sue Coe, There is No Escape, from Porkopolis series, 1987Harsh indictment of the contemporary meat industry.

Clearly Coe’s sympathized are with the pigs.

Terracotta hydria (water jar) c.510; black figureAmong the many changes brought to the city of Athens in the Archaic era was an improved water system and new public fountains. During the latter part of the sixth century B.C., scenes of women at a fountain house became very popular on black-figure vases. Here women gather to chat and to fill their hydria.

Storing/Serving Food

Three-Legged Ting with Cover, Zhou Dynasty, China, 6th c. BCEAncient Chinese bronze vessel for storing liquids, such as ritual wine.Placed near a shrine of deceased ancestors to receive blessings for a successful crop or good health.

Ancient Chinese bronze vessel for storing liquids, such as ritual wine.Ancient Greek, Women at the Fountain House (c.520BCE), ceramic hydria.

Storing/Serving Food

Lidded Saltcellar, 15th-16th c. Sierra Leone, ivory

In the second half of the 15th c., Portuguese explorers and traders were impressed by the considerable talent of ivory carvers they encountered along the coast of W. Africa—they commissioned works which combine both European aesthetics and forms with those of Africa.

Top—European-looking roseLower—African snakes spirits believed to bring immense riches to those who control them

Warhol, Vegetarian Vegetable from Campbell’s Soup II, 1969

Warhol appropriated images from American popular culture.

Dress, ca. 1966–67

ART THAT GLORIFIES FOOD

Jan Davidsz de Heem, Still Life: A Banqueting Scene, 1670s (Baroque period)Display of wealth and abundance—food as refined taste.

Wayne Thiebaud, Pie Counter, 1963In 1961, Thiebaud’s food paintings—cakes, pies, candy, etc. painted with thick paint in bright colors—were a big hit in New York. Some scholars called him a Pop artist because he painted popular consumer goods, he said he painted them out of nostalgia; they reminded him of his boyhood and the best of America.

Compare—food as luxury vs. food as nostalgiaNeither show food as nutrition for the body.

Mu-Qi, Six Persimmons, 13th c.Ink on paper, Southern Song Dynasty

During the late Song Dynasty, Zen monks took to painting as a form of self-expression. They worked towards a highly reduced form of brush painting—just as Zen was the most stripped-down form of Buddhism. Mu-Qi is celebrated as the ultimate in painterly simplicity. Six persimmons are represented by ink lines and washes so elementary that it seems child-like—yet the rendering and placement of the persimmons was an unprecedented artistic innovation.

Art and the Act of Eating

Leonardo, Last Supper, 1495-98Ritual meal as a religious ceremony.Composition—formal and symmetrical.

Edward Weston, Artichoke halved, 1930In 1934, Weston wrote that a photograph should be “sharply focused, clearly defined from edge to edge, from nearest object to most distant. It should have a smooth or glossy surface to better reveal the amazing textures and details to be found only in a photograph. Its value should be clear cut, subtle or brilliant never veiled.”West Coast photographer and member of Group F:64

Judy Chicago, Dinner Party, 1974-79Imaginary, formal meal to celebrate significant women in Western culture39 place settings (13x3)Triangle

Duane Hanson, Self-Portrait with Model, 1979The figures cast in fiberglass, painted and clothed…quite literally inhabit the viewer’s space. Detractors may liken his work to figures in a wax museum, the content of his sculptures is more complex and expressive than that normally found in waxworks.

Janine Antoni, Gnaw 1992Three-part installation: 600 lbs. of chocolate gnawed by the artist; 600 lbs. of lard gnawed by the artist; display with 130 lipsticks made with pigment, beeswax, and chewed lard removed from the lard cube; 27 heart-shaped packages made from the chewed chocolate removed from the chocolate cube.It seemed to embody desire for the viewer and what happens if you succumb to that desire. You get fat!

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters, 1565One of a series of paintings representing the month.A visual meditation of near and far. Near—real people, exhausted, intoxicated, hungry, and workingFar—rolling world of corn and wood spreading to the harbor—the beautiful world in which we are privileged to live—potential earthly paradise.

Renior, Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-81Reflects the changing character of French society. The restaurant welcomed customers of many classes, including businessmen, society women, artists, actresses, writers, critics, seamstresses, and shop girls. The diverse group embodied a new, modern Parisian society.

SHELTER

MOSHE SAFDIE, Habitat, designed for Expo’67 Montreal

Modern version of group living—stacked modular living units that open onto gardens on the roofs of other units.

Catal Huyuk, 6,000-5,000BCE (Turkey) Deliberate city planning took place here. There were rooftop walkways/no

streets. Preliterate society.

Pueblo Bonito, Anasazi, New Mexico, 11th c.

Ceremonial fortress reserved for the Anasazi elite.Built all in one piece over the rubble of previous construction.

Dogan Cliff Dwellings with Granaries, Mali, Africa, 13th c.

Adobe houses, shrines, granariesFlat land is reserved for farmingUnused buildings deteriorated quickly and return to the earth.

Roman villa,Airy courtyards, gardens and artworkDistinguished the villas of the Wealthy in ancient Rome

INDIVIDUAL HOUSES

PALLADIO, Villa Rotunda, Vicenza, Italy, 1552

Renaissance villa—looks back to Greece and Rome

Tomb Model of a House, Eastern Han Dynasty, China, 15-220CE. Ceramic 52x33x27”

Verticality and emphasis on roof design typical of Han Dynasty house design.

Decorated façade of Toba Batak House, Sumatra, Indonesia, c.19th c.

Tipi cover, N. Amer. Sioux, c.1880Decorated with tipis and equestrian warrior figures.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater, 1936-38Kaufmann House, PA

Wright believed that houses should be unified wholes that merge into their natural settings.

Influenced by Chinese and Japanese architecture, esp. in its cantilevered porches.

Commercial Architecture

Interior of Markets of Trajan, Rome, 10-112 CE

Concrete construction, arches, vaults—expolited by the Romans to construct massive buildings.Concrete was cheap, flexible and fireproof

Louis H. Sullivan, Carson Pirie Scott and Company, 1904, CHI

One of the 1st Modern high-rise buildings

“FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION”

Steel frameworkNon-load-bearing walls (skin over bones)Height emphasized over horizontal

Fuller, U.S. Pavilion, Montreal Expo ’67

Nearly spherical dome, 250’ diameter

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Seagram Building, 1954-1958

INTERNATIONAL STYLEGenerally the rectangle dominated architectural design—Spare, rectangular shafts of steel and glass devoid of ornamentation Street-level plazas

NEW, MODERN, HEROIC--UTOPIAN

I.M.Pei, Bank of China, 1989 Hong Kong

Resistance to the International StyleRectangle is dissolved into triangles and diagonals

Triangles form the basis of the visual design and physical structure of the buildingBase subdivided into four equal triangular sections

POSTMODERNISM—late 20th c. movement in which art forms were deconstructed to be analyzed and potentially reinterpreted and reconstructed. Charles Moore, Piazza d’Italia, New Orleans, 1975-1980

Presence of the past—Roman, Italian Renaissance, 20th c. entertainment sites

‘LESS IS MORE was replaced with LESS IS BORE”

The Italian American Marching Club held a pre-parade celebration at Piazza d'Italia in New Orleans on Sunday March 13, 2011 for the crowning of their queen and introduction of royalty. Queen Lindsay Russo and "Caesar" Armando Asaro wave to the crowd during the presentation.