The Cuisine of Art and the Art of Cuisine

Details of Study Day on Tuesday, 21st April 2015 at Hutton Mount, Ripon
“The Cuisine of Art and the Art of Cuisine”
Artists often talk about their art in
terms of cooking and when we look at
a beautiful painting we often do too!
‘Delectable!’ ‘Delicious!’
This Study Day will be a feast for the
eyes and the taste buds and will be a
veritable inspiration for your cooking!
It will feature the art anecdotes and
recipes of artists who loved their food.
We will discuss Toulouse Lautrec,
famous in his day for his truly fabulous
meals and infamous cookbook, Renoir
who introduced Paris to the pleasures
of Provencal peasant cooking, as well
as Monet, Cezanne, Picasso and many
others. Recipes will be posted on the
internet – or bring a pen!
The format of the day will be as follows:
Lecture 1
This lecture begins at the beginning - with cave paintings that are over
25,000 years old. Our earliest art celebrates the necessity of hunting:
the centrality of both food and art to our survival. From there we will
move into the Garden of Eden and the fruit of the forbidden tree: we
will explore how food, knowledge, curiosity and sexuality are
intertwined. Banished from Paradise, we had to dig and delve and
become farmers and our struggle for survival was paramount.
Until Elizabethan times, if you didn’t manage your food to see you and
your family through the winter – you starved. Hence food and the
abundance of food became a sign of power and celebration and,
perhaps, wish fulfillment. And yet at the same time it was understood
that we do not live by bread alone. The medieval mind saw everything
as symbolic and part of God’s creation, so food was a sign for the
brevity of life in the face of the eternal life to come, sensuality versus
spirituality.
We will also look at the importance of still life painting and its fall
from grace, to be given fresh life by the Impressionists who form the
core of lecture two after the break.
Coffee/tea break (provided)
Lecture 2
Impressionism
A packed house: Monet, (kitchen dining room, garden and paintings)
Renoir, (Mediterranean cuisine), Caillebotte (extraordinary images),
Lautrec (an extraordinary and bizarre cook of the first order) Cézanne,
(his Provencal potatoes) – a perfect feast for the eyes and the palette.
The lecture will explore the role of food in the lives and art of these
extraordinary artists. Anecdotes and recipes abound.
Lunch break (please bring a packed lunch)
Lecture 3
Food in modern art: Van Gogh, Picasso, Soutine, Hockney ~ from
Delacroix the idea that at visual pleasure is like a sumptuous repast,
sensually alluring and then spiritually nourishing a shared gift, a
coming together, painting as a visual feast – Matisse, Bonnard, Paula
Möderson-Becker, Francis Bacon, Howard Hodgkin, Hockney and
many, many more. This will be threaded with the art of the cookbook,
the beautiful illustrations of John Minton and the wonderful kitschy
photographs of the popular cookery books from the 1930s onward.
A (Very) Brief Bibliography:
Toulouse Lautrec, Henri and Maurice Joyant, The Art of Cuisine
Alain Ducasse, Cézanne: A Taste of Provence
Jean-Bernard Naudin, et al., Renoir’s Table
Claire Joyes, Monet’s Cookery Notebook
Ermine Herscher, Picasso, Bon Vivant
Elizabeth David, Mediterranean and French Country Food (John Minton Illustrations)
Carol Eron, The Artist’s Table
Royal College of Art, The Artist’s Cookbook
Mary Ann Caws, The Modern Art Cookbook
Ghislaine Howard is a painter of
powerful and expressive means whose
works chart and interpret shared human
experience. Named as a Woman of the
Year for her contribution to art and
society, she has published and exhibited
widely and has work in many collections
including the Royal Collection.
Exhibitions of her work have taken place
at many prestigious venues including
Manchester Art Gallery, Canterbury
Cathedral, Imperial War Museum North
and The British Museum.
She is an associate lecturer at Manchester School of Art and has lectured to a broad
spectrum of people at her studio/gallery or at more public venues such as cathedrals,
art galleries, and other institutions.
She lives in the beautiful Derbyshire Peak District with her husband Michael, who is
also a NADFAS lecturer as well as being an art historian and artist.