Food as Art: Art as Food

The name Giuseppe Arcimboldo means little to most culinary enthusiasts, or “foodies” as many are inclined to refer to them. He was neither a great chef, nor was he an altogether significant contributor to the enduring culinary landscape. Arcimboldo, an Italian painter from the Renaissance era, is probably best known for his manipulations and portraiture with food. More explicitly, Arcimboldo used the representational likeness of various foods to create surreal portraits of those who sat for him. This series of portraits made Arcimboldo quite famous for the time, and set the standard for food-based art.

Over the last 400 years, artists of all sorts of media have found inspiration in playing with their food. From paint, to assemblage, to video, food has served as both muse and raw materials for all manner of creative expression. Most recently, the widely admired band OK GO (more admired for their exceptionally creative videos, than their actual music) released this compelling, and quite beautiful video utilizing a laser cutter and thousands of pieces of toast:

Last Leaf

OK Go | Myspace Music Videos

While more and more emphasis is placed upon the artistry of food preparation, and presentation in the restaurant setting, as well in magazines and on competitive food arenas. It is enthralling to see artists, as well as just creative types, playing with their food.

The following is a minor celebration of these people and their creations. While in no way is this intended to be a comprehensive look at all of the artists working within this medium, it is a tantalizing start. Feel free to add some of your favorites in the comments below.

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Read more: Following Food, Food, Nature, arcimboldo, art, creativity, food art, muniz, OK Go, video art, warner

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Jo A.

4:20PM PDT on May 16, 2011

Beautiful! Novel! It must be wonderful to eat a work of art! Thanks for this story. Will look up the works of Vik Muniz and Carl Warner to see their works.

send a green star

Eternal G.

8:47PM PST on Dec 11, 2010

Arty!

Barbara E.

7:52PM PST on Nov 27, 2010

Interesting....thanx

Loo S.

1:38AM PST on Nov 17, 2010

thanks for the amazing article.

Lika S.

12:13AM PST on Nov 17, 2010

Cool! Edible art! I like those edible bouquets, it has all that fresh fruit... it's like fruit salad on a stick, and you can pick out different ones to have on your plate. YUMMY!

Elzmarie E.

11:49AM PST on Nov 16, 2010

Sweet, you guys may want to try youtubing coffee art or cappichino art.

Micon K.

8:12AM PST on Nov 16, 2010

art is a very amazing thing... art in food is not a bad idea too, but when it gets wasted, it is depressing to ponder... I do not say that food art is a waste, its just that food with the art are sometimes not consumed...

Myriam G.

7:23AM PST on Nov 16, 2010

I don't know how I feel about these. Of course, they're beautiful and creative, but... wasting food...?
I guess it's OK if it gets eaten in the end, but I hate to think that these thousand of toasts went into a compost pile after the shooting of the video.

2:29AM PST on Nov 16, 2010

funny

Kirsten B.

1:13AM PST on Nov 16, 2010

Amazing. Thank you for sharing.

There is an exhibition called Eat Art on here in Stuttgart, which I took my daughter too - but a lot of it was pretty bizarre and way over her head. She had 2 favorites: a rotating kitchen which was a total mess and a stain on the wall which represented a child having thrown up spaghetti and tomato sauce ....