Dish

FOOD IS MORE than just a necessity for life. It acts as a cultural touchstone, provides rituals of community, and is made through many systems of labor. Artists have responded to food as a subject for centuries, from banquet scenes in Roman frescoes to Dutch Golden Age still lifes of tables opulently laden with dishes.

More recently, contemporary artists have examined the social meanings of food, as explored in The Art of Food, from the collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer, on view at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center. The exhibition features more than 100 pieces by thirty-six major contemporary artists including John Baldessari, Joseph Beuys, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Alison Saar, and Andy Warhol.

“It allowed us to feature a variety of artists and mediums,” says curator Olivia Miller of the food theme, adding that “the artwork is incredible on its own, but the show is also a wonderful catalyst to talk about important issues surrounding food that affect local communities.”

The Art of Food originated at the University of Arizona Museum of Art, and its wide-ranging media, from sculpture and photography to painting and drawing, offer diverse entry points to these conversations. For instance, in Claes Oldenberg’s Wedding Cake (1966), the artist used plaster to create a very realistic-looking slice of wedding cake—like the one often saved by couples for a first anniversary. C-Ration (1991), by Lorna Simpson, examines the racist legacy of food service. In a diptych of black-and-white photographs, a white plate is overlaid with the black text ‘NOT GOOD ENOUGH’ while the body of a Black woman is overwritten with the words, in white text, ‘BUT GOOD ENOUGH TO SERVE,’ recalling slavery and the segregation of dining spaces.

Each work, from the provocative to the playful, encourages viewers to reconsider the seemingly simple presence of food in our lives, where every meal shared, and every flavor tasted, reflects a complex global history.