Last week at Eva Breuer Art Dealer where I work as a Gallery Associate, I curated an exhibition from artworks in the stockroom titled Food & Art . Among the still lifes and banquet scenes is Weaver Hawkins’s painting of grapefruit, an artwork I wrote about on this blog in June 2009.

EXHIBITION BRIEF: The representation of food has always had a presence within the realm of the visual arts. The sharing of food and drink is a communal behavior similar to the way art acts as a forum for dialogue. This collection of paintings from the gallery stock room explores the appearance of food in not only traditional still life paintings and banquet scenes but also in figurative paintings such as David Boyd’s Two Children with apple and orange (1999) and Ray Crooke’s Villagers Relaxing.

The still life paintings range from knobby yellow capsicums by Ena Joyce to Elisabeth Kruger’s perfectly round clementines that appear to be rosy and ripe. Sophie Dunlop’s opulent coloured etchings display fruits scattered among various bowls and pitchers with a background echoing the aesthetic of a Roman fresco. Dunlop layers the connections between food and art by referencing art itself within the genre of a still life. With this in mind, the quiet composition of a jar of paint brushes and a lone squash in Judy Cassab’s Untitled painting can be viewed as the crux of the exhibition and a celebration of creative output, both artistic and culinary.

Left: Ena Joyce, Golden Capsicums on Brocade Cloth, Gouache on paper, 54 x 68 cm
Right: Elisabeth Kruger, Clementines (2000), conte on craft paper, 65 x 45 cm

  • Eva Breuer Art Dealer website (archive)
  • “Food & Art Exhibition Podcast,” 1min: 59sec; 26 Mar 2010 (link broken).
  • Artists: Jean Appleton, Margaret Benoit, David Boyd, Judy Cassab, Ray Crooke, Brian Dunlop, Sophie Dunlop, Weaver Hawkins, Ena Joyce, Elisabeth Kruger, Margaret Olley, John Olsen, Lady Dixon Nemarra, Don Rankin, Brian Seidel, Rosemary Valadon, Sam Wade, Meg Williams, Lisa Young.

Food & Art is on view at Eva Breuer Art Dealer (83 Moncur St., Woollahra) from 26 March to 5 April 2010.