Synopses & Reviews
Matisse, Picasso, Hockneyandmdash;they may not have been from the same period, but they all painted still lifes of food. And they are not alone. Andy Warhol painted soup cans, Claes Oldenburg sculpted an ice cream cone on the top of a building in Cologne, Jack Kerouacandrsquo;s Sal ate apple pie across the country, and Truman Capote served chicken hash at the Black and White Ball. Food has always played a role in art, but how well and what did the artists themselves eat? Exploring a panoply of artworks of food, cooking, and eating from Europe and the Americas, The Modern Art Cookbook opens a window into the lives of artists, writers, and poets in the kitchen and the studio throughout the twentieth century and beyond.and#160;From the early moderns to the impressionists; from symbolists to cubists and surrealists; from the Beats to the abstractionists of the New York School, Mary Ann Caws surveys how artists and writers have eaten, cooked, and depicted food. She examines the parallels between the art of cuisine and the visual arts and literature, using artworks, diaries, novels, letters, and poems to illuminate the significance of particular ingredients and dishes in the lives of the worldandrsquo;s greatest artists. In between, she supplies numerous recipes from these artistsandmdash;including Ezra Poundandrsquo;s poetic eggs, Candeacute;zanneandrsquo;s baked tomatoes, and Monetandrsquo;s madeleinesandmdash;alongside one hundred color illustrations and thought-provoking selections from both poetry and prose. A joyous and illuminating guide to the art of food, The Modern Art Cookbook is a feast for the mind as well as the palate.
Review
andldquo;Who wouldnandrsquo;t want to taste Allen Ginsbergandrsquo;s borscht, Frida Kahloandrsquo;s red snapper, or Candeacute;zanneandrsquo;s baked tomatoes?and#160; Mary Ann Cawsandmdash;a phenomenal writer, critic, translator, and curator of cultivated pleasuresandmdash;has assembled an intoxicating mandeacute;lange of reminiscences, art works, poems, and recipes. This savory compendium offers imaginative satisfactions of the highest order. I canandrsquo;t wait to bake David Hockneyandrsquo;s strawberry cake!andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A masterful blend of scholarship, detective work and recipes by modern masters. This is a gem: wonderful to read and exciting in its prospect of cooking delicious meals created and eaten by great artists.andrdquo;
Review
and#8220;Mouthwatering. . . . Captivating images of works by Mary Cassat and Gustav Klimt are partnered with recipes used by Salvador Dali and Frida Kahlo, amounting to the perfect gourmet tour through art history. Beyond artworks and recipes, the work also includes diary entries, poems, and bits of correspondence that illuminate artand#8217;s long love affair with food. Youand#8217;ll not only learn to cook Monetand#8217;s madeleines but youand#8217;ll understand why Cezanne had a penchant for drawing potatoes. If visions of abstract paintings and juicy roasted vegetables are dancing in your head already, we donand#8217;t blame you.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Itand#8217;s the rare artist who doesnand#8217;t occasionally make the antics of the kitchen the subject of a work or two. But far from offering a dry review of that phenomenon or a delicious-looking but unfulfilling cocktail book of plates, Surrealism scholar Mary Ann Caws has assembled a collection of artistsand#8217; personal writings, from diary entries to poetry, to examine the connection between art and paintings in The Modern Art Cookbook.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;The best thing about this beautifully packaged book is the lavish quantity of coloured plates: still lives and drawings, the odd photograph, some familiar, others not, all of them of food. . . . [Caws] has paired pictures and recipes in the most imaginative way. . . . A visual feast to salivate over.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Connecting the senses is what The Modern Art Cookbook is all about. . . . The larger purpose of this delectable anthology is the association of reading, looking and cooking. . . . Mary Ann Caws has a discriminating eye, a catholic taste, a fine feeling for feeding, as A. J. Liebling called it, and a wonderfully well-stocked larder of culture. As a trans-historical truffle-hound she is hard to beat. . . . Mary Ann Cawsand#8217;s purpose is triumphantly achieved. The marriage of lookery and cookery is beguiling: the total effect is mouth-watering.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Try Cand#233;zanneand#8217;s pears and quinces with honey or Roy Lichtensteinand#8217;s roast fillet of beef. Less a kitchen book than a feast for the eyes.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;[Caws] cookbook is a compilation of recipes culled from various artistsand#8217; repertoires or inspired by their preferences, interspersed with paintings, photographs, snippets of poems, fiction, and essays about food or cooking. For instance, thereand#8217;s a recipe called and#8216;Cezanneand#8217;s Anchoiadeand#8217; in homage to the daily anchovies he ate rolled between sautand#233;ed eggplant slices on the way to his studio. Instead of pictures of the finished product, a painting by Julian Merrow Smith of two silvery anchovies accompanies the recipe. . . . What Caws is doing is highlighting the intersection between the act of creating art and cooking.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Not a cookbook for those who like precise measurements and step-by-step guides, this book provides instead a rich fund of anecdotes and recipes, mined from the notebooks and journals of writers and artists who also liked to cook. Picassoand#8217;s charlotte au chocolat, Cand#233;zanneand#8217;s knockout bitter orange wine, David Hockneyand#8217;s strawberry cake and Roy Lichtensteinand#8217;s grilled bass all figure here, illustrated by their own or other artistsand#8217; pictures.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A veritable smorgasbord of strange and often charming details.and#8221;
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-197).
Synopsis
Robert Motherwell was by far the most intellectual and articulate of the Abstract Expressionists. This book, written by a friend of the artist, the well-known writer and critic Mary Ann Caws, examines Motherwells way of thinking and writing in relation to his paintings. The artist, American by birth, yet simultaneously American and European in his way of visualizing and vocalizing artistic and philosophical traditions, always worked between these two poles, and it is this tension that imbues his
œuvre with its particular intensity.
The author bases her analysis of Motherwell on the artists own writings and readings, as well as on extensive conversations and interviews with him. She considers his work and interests in relation to those of other Abstract Expressionists as well as to the work of the Surrealists. Her book highlights his deep attraction to France and French literature and art, and his concern with the idea of elegy and the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War. His singularly American spirit provided him with a manner of painting and thinking unique among the Abstract Expressionists, as well as with a distinctive and highly personal filter through which to interpret his fascination with European literature and history.
About the Author
Mary Ann Caws is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, English and French at the City University of New York. She is the author of André Breton (1996), The Surrealist Look: An Erotics of Encounter (1997) and Dora Maar: With and Without Picasso (2000).
Table of Contents
Preface
A Short Biography
1. Painter, Writer and Reader
2. America and Europe
3. An Ethical Aesthetic: Individual and Public
4. Feeling and Violence
5. Surrealism and Spontaneity
6. Voyage and Quest: Baudelaire and Mallarmé, Eliot and Cornell
7. Nocturnes: Matisse, Stevens and Schwartz; Frost and Jarrell
8. Working Through the Night
9. Cloud and Mistake: Joyce and Yeats
10. Elegy for Us All: Lorca, Beckett, Alberti
11. Open Window: Whitman, Stevens, Olson
12. Harmony of Consciousness
13. Open Door: Back to the Studio
14. The Sublime: Looking Again Now
Epilogue
References
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations