From plate to palette: a history of food in art
Ten-week art history and theory course
Monday 15 January - Sunday 25 March 2018
The Sir Hugh Casson Room for Friends, The Keeper's House, Royal Academy of Arts, Piccadilly
7–9pm each week (registration from 6.30pm). £540 for full course, £320 for weeks 1–5 OR weeks 6–10. Includes all materials, light refreshments throughout, and a drinks reception at the end of weeks 5 and 10.
Terms and conditions
Explore the remarkable history of food in art, from the ancient world to the contemporary, across a range of themes. Over ten weeks of lectures and discussions, leading scholars and art world experts consider how food has inspired artists over the ages and has been used to evoke allegory, symbolism, still life, feminism, surrealism, hyper-reality and much more.
Booking for weeks 1-5 of this event has now closed. Places are still available for weeks 6-10.
The depiction of food in art has existed since the earliest recorded images. It has served both as a representation of daily life as well as an allegory for the social and economic. Food has been used by artists to describe and critique society, raising fascinating questions about power, wealth, status, life, fertility, death, the after-life and more.
From the earliest examples of human visual culture, stone age cave paintings depict slaughtered animals, perhaps to be consumed; Egyptian hieroglyphs provide tantalising glimpses into an agrarian economy with reference to crops and bread; Roman mosaics include visions of fruit, fish, bounty and feasting.
Perhaps the most well-known example of food in art in the Western tradition is the opulent still life, and the associated genre paintings made popular in the 16th and 17th century. Such paintings became an opportunity for artists to showcase their skill and talent through the depiction of lifelike and intricate arrangements which captured texture and colours, and provided new perspectives on edible and perishable goods. For those who commissioned and collected them, such paintings served to distinguish the owner’s wealth, intellect and social status. The exotic and often luxurious, as well as common, foods on display made subtle references to decay, the temporary and transient nature of life.
The depiction of food in art has long been employed by artists to engage with social, political and gender agendas, increasingly in recent times. Famously, the pop artists of the 20th century appropriated images of mass-produced and fast foods to comment on social issues such as commercial and consumer culture.The symbolism associated with certain foods has also been used by feminist artists throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, and often combined with self-portraiture, to claim back sexuality, critique social norms, and empower the female role.
Historical and contemporary examples are many and fascinating and the depiction of food and eating is an enduring interest for artists; a nearly universal theme across the world’s many cultures and over time.
This ten-week course presents an exciting and unusual perspective on the history of art by considering the changing role and depiction of food. Taking a broadly chronological and thematic approach, the course begins with some of the earliest depictions of food in art, and considers them through the ages and across cultures. Beginning with the ancient world and antiquities, the course moves on to Egypt, Greek and Roman mosaics, and food in medieval cultures, with a focused exploration of the Dutch still life and genre painting. A discussion of satire brings the course into the early 18th century, and then towards the treatment of food by artists in the modern and contemporary periods, where key artistic movements including Impressionism, Futurism, Surrealism, Pop Art, Feminist art, the hyper-real and contemporary art will be reviewed.
Topics that will be covered include:
• The depiction of food in antiquities and ancient art
• The symbolism of certain foods including the apple, the pomegranate, the quince, bread, oysters, lobster and meat
• A detailed and comprehensive study of food in art throughout the ages, from ancient Egypt through to the contemporary art world
• Discussion into how food has been treated by artists in different artistic movements, and its impact on the art historical narrative
Leading scholars, art historians and art world practitioners explore the work of key artists and landmark artworks that depict the evolution of the relationship between food and art.
Although depiction of food in art exists across the world’s cultures, this series focuses predominately on the Western, British and European traditions, including reference to works in the RA collection and national museums.
This course is available to book as a full ten-week course OR as two individual blocks of five weeks.
There is a break of one week in between the two five-week blocks:
Weeks 1–5 (Monday 15 January – Monday 12 February)
Break – Monday 19 February
Weeks 6–10 (Monday 26 February – Monday 26 March)
7–9pm each week (registration from 6.30pm). £540 for full course, £320 for weeks 1–5 OR weeks 6–10. Includes all materials, light refreshments throughout, and a drinks reception at the end of weeks 5 and 10.
Terms and conditions
About the course
During the ten course sessions, leading art historians, experts, and practitioners will chronicle and discuss the depiction of food in art, and its symbolic, social and societal implications. Spanning Ancient Egypt to contemporary practise, and from Dutch still life through to Pop Art and feminist art, this is a unique and unconventional opportunity to understand art history from the age of civilisation to the present day.
This course is available to book as a full ten-week course OR as two individual blocks of five-weeks.
There is a break of one week in between the two five week blocks:
Weeks 1–5 (Monday 15 January – Monday 12 February)
Break – Monday 19 February
Weeks 6–10 (Monday 26 February – Monday 26 March)
This course is suitable for all levels of experience.
This course is for you if:
• You have a general interest in the history of art, and would like a novel way to understand cultural and historical change
• You are interested in gaining knowledge about the tradition of the representation of food in art and its symbolic, social and political meanings
• You would like to hear a wide range of speakers from across the art world, including curators, historians, and practitioners, present on a specific genre within art history
The course will be delivered in part through a lecture format, but will include an opportunity for questions and discussion between speakers and participants.
The course is designed to enable an historical overview for those new to the field, but is relevant for those with prior art world knowledge experience who are keen to learn from experts.
Minimum age 18
Price for five weeks: £320
Price for ten weeks: £540
Registration from 6.30pm
7pm–9pm per session
This course provides:
• A rich combination of lectures, discussion and the opportunity for expert-led answers from a range of art world speakers
• Both a chronological and thematic exploration of food in art, with a focus on genres such as still life, satire, feminist art, hyper-reality and the interactive experience
• Skills and knowledge relevant to those with art historical and art practical interests
• The opportunity to learn art history, from the civilisation ages to contemporary art, from an unconventional angle
• The opportunity to socialise and network with peers in a friendly environment
• A certificate of participation upon course completion – for individuals attending the full ten-week course only
• Light refreshments at the beginning of each session
• A drinks reception at the end of weeks five and ten
Guest speakers include:
Week One
Cedar Lewisohn
Freelance artist, writer and curator
Cedar Lewisohn is an artist, writer and curator. He has worked on many museum projects for institutions such as Tate Britain, Tate Modern and The British Council. He is interested in various forms of exhibition platform, as well as experimental forms of writing. He is currently curator of a three-year project, Outside The Cube, for HangarBicocca foundation in Milan. He writes regularly about the cross-over between art and gastronomy, and has recently edited a publication for the Taste International food festival and a special one off edition of the Saatchi Gallery’s magazine, which was renamed Art and Food.
Week Two
John Wilkins
Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture, University of Exeter
John Wilkins is Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture, University of Exeter. He has written books on Greek Tragedy and Comedy, but most of his work has been on the history of Food and Medicine in the Greco-Roman World. Books include Archestratus of Gela (1994: Europe's earliest cookery book), Food in Antiquity (co-edited 1995), Food in European Literature (ed. 1996), Athenaeus and his World (co-edited 2000), The Boastful Chef: The Discourse of Food in Ancient Greek Comedy (2000), Food in the Ancient World (2006), Galen and the World of Knowledge (co-ed 2009), Galien: Sur les facultés des aliments (2013), The Blackwell Companion to Food in the Ancient World (co-ed 2015).
Week Three
Quentin Buvelot
Senior Curator, Mauritshuis, The Hague
Quentin Buvelot has been the senior curator of the Mauritshuis, The Hague, since 2008. In the past, he has organised numerous exhibitions with leading international institutions, for example Dutch Portraits: The Age of Rembrandt and Frans Hals (National Gallery, London, 2007-2008). With Desmond Shawe-Taylor, surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures, he recently curated the exhibition Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer, shown in London, Edinburgh and The Hague (2015-2017). In March 2017, an exhibition on the genesis of the Dutch and Flemish meal still-life (1600-1640) opened in the Mauritshuis, accompanied by a scholarly catalogue written by its curator, Buvelot, as well as other Dutch art historians. At the moment he is preparing a show for the autumn of 2018 in the Mauritshuis, Dutch paintings from National Trust houses in England. He is one of the main authors of the publication Genre Paintings in the Mauritshuis (December 2016).
Before his appointment at the Mauritshuis, Buvelot worked as a lecturer at Utrecht University. Following a period as assistant curator in the Mauritshuis, in 1996 he was recruited as a researcher for the Fondation Custodia, Frits Lugt Collection, Paris. There he worked on a major catalogue of the Dutch and Flemish paintings of the Musée Fabre, Montpellier. Buvelot has published many catalogues and books, as well as numerous shorter contributions to scholarly magazines, including The Burlington Magazine, Delineavit et Sculpsit, Master Drawings, Oud Holland and Mauritshuis in Focus.
Week Four
Vic Gatrell
Emeritus Professor of History, Cambridge University
Professor Vic Gatrell is a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He has lectured in the Cambridge History Faculty for most of his career, and was Professor of British History in the University of Essex 2003-9. Born in South Africa, he graduated with distinction at Rhodes University, won an Elsie Ballot scholarship to Cambridge, and at St John’s College took first-class honours in history and completed his Ph.D. before being elected a Fellow of Caius. He has held visiting fellowships at Australian National University and at the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale.
He specialises in eighteenth and nineteenth century British cultural history. His The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English People 1770-1868 (Oxford, 1994) won the Whitfield Prize of the Royal Historical Society, and was nominated as one of the seminal works that make up the historical ‘Canon’ in Times Higher Education, 2010. It is a study of changing attitudes to and emotions about capital punishment across a period of profound cultural change. His City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-century London (Atlantic, 2006) studies the history of manners and satirical caricature in London from 1780 to 1830, and won Britain’s premier history prize, the Wolfson Prize, as well as the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize, as well as being shortlisted for the Authors’ Club Banister Fletcher Award for art history and the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. His The First Bohemians: Life and Art in London’s Golden Age (Allen Lane and Penguin, 2013) is a history of ‘proto-bohemian’ Covent Garden and the ‘lower’ art world in eighteenth-century London. It argues for the significance of the arts that celebrated ‘real life’ in that era. It was shortlisted for the Hessell-Tiltman Prize.
Week Five
Georgina Gold
Independent art advisor and Founder of Georgina Gold Fine Art
Georgina Gold, with over twenty years’ experience in the art industry, is an independent art advisor for international collectors. Based in London, she specialises in the Impressionists, Modern Masters and Contemporary Art. Prior to founding Georgina Gold Fine Art she was a Senior Director, specialist and auctioneer in the Impressionist and Modern Art Department for Sotheby’s in London.
Georgina initially joined Sotheby’s in Australia in 2002 and was Head of the Australian Art Department specialising in 19th and 20th Century art. When she returned to London in 2009 she became a Director of Agnew’s Gallery in London focusing on the 20th Century and Contemporary exhibition program, before returning to Sotheby’s.
Before joining Sotheby’s in Sydney, Georgina managed Rex Irwin Art Dealer and focused on Contemporary Australian and British artists and prior to this she worked for Philips Fine Art Auctioneers in London. She has represented numerous charity events serving as the auctioneer, was selected as a specialist for the Antiques Roadshow, and has been invited to judge numerous art prizes.
Week Six
Lesley Chamberlain
Historian and Novelist
Lesley Chamberlain is an historian and novelist. She began her career writing about food, including The Food and Cooking of Russia and The Food and Cooking of Eastern Europe (Penguin, 1982), and prepared the first English edition of F.T. Marinetti's The Futurist Cookbook (Trefoil Books 1989; Penguin Classics 2014). Her most recent book is Arc of Utopia: The Beautiful Story of the Russian Revolution (Reaktion Books, 2017).
Week Seven
Richard Cork
Art historian, broadcaster and curator
Richard Cork is an award-winning art critic, historian, broadcaster and curator. After reading Art History at Cambridge, where he gained a Doctorate, Cork became Art Critic of The Evening Standard and then Chief Art Critic of The Times. He broadcasts regularly on BBC radio and TV. Cork was Slade Professor of Fine Art at Cambridge University in 1989-90, and Henry Moore Senior Fellow at the Courtauld Institute, 1992-5. He has acted as a judge for the Turner Prize and curated major exhibitions at Tate, the Hayward Gallery, the Barbican Art Gallery, the Royal Academy and other European venues.
Cork’s many books include a ground-breaking study of Vorticism, awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1977; Art Beyond the Gallery, winner of the Banister Fletcher Award for the best art book in 1986; a major monograph on David Bomberg, 1987; A Bitter Truth: Avant-Garde Art and the Great War, winner of the Art Fund Award in 1995; Jacob Epstein, 1999; four acclaimed volumes of his critical writings on modern art, published by Yale in 2003; Michael Craig-Martin, 2006; and Wild Thing: Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska, Gill, 2009. He is also the author of The Healing Presence of Art (Yale 2012), a pioneering history of western art in hospitals from the Renaissance to the 20th century, and Face to Face (Tate 2015), a collection of his interviews with leading British artists. He was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy in 2011.
Week Eight
Katy Deepwell
Professor of Contemporary Art, Theory and Criticism at Middlesex University
Katy Deepwell is Professor of Contemporary Art, Theory and Criticism at Middlesex University and founder and editor of n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal (1998-2017) and KT press. In 2017 she launched n.paradoxa's MOOC (a mass open online course) on feminism and contemporary art. Her books include: (co-edited with Agata Jakubowska) All-Women Spaces in Europe in the long 1970s (Liverpool University Press, 2018); (ed) Feminist Art Manifestos: An Anthology (KT press, 2014); Women Artists between the Wars (Manchester University Press, 2010); Dialogues: Women Artists from Ireland (IB Tauris, 2005); (ed) Women Artists and Modernism (Manchester University Press, 1998); (ed) New Feminist Art Criticism (Manchester University Press, 1995). She has contributed essays to many exhibition catalogues and journals over the last 30 years in the UK and abroad.
Week Nine
Susan Bright
Writer and Curator of Photography
Susan Bright has worked within the arts for twenty years and has a track record of innovative exhibitions, publications and programming specialising in how photography is made, disseminated and interpreted. She has curated exhibitions internationally at institutions including: Tate Britain and The National Portrait Gallery in London and The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago amongst others. The exhibition How We Are: Photographing Britain was the first major exhibition of British photography at Tate. The exhibition Home Truths (Photographers’ Gallery and the Foundling Museum and travelling to MoCP, Chicago and Belfast Exposed) was named one of the top exhibitions of 2013/2014 by The Guardian and The Chicago Tribune.
Her published books include: Feast for the Eyes: The Story of Food in Photography (2017), Home Truths: Photography and Motherhood (2013), Auto Focus: The Self Portrait in Contemporary Photography (2010), How We Are: Photographing Britain (2007: co‐authored with Val Williams), Face of Fashion (2007), and Art Photography Now (2005). She regularly writes for museums and monographic books, and contributes to numerous magazines and journals. She holds a PhD in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London.
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