Museum Monday - All Consuming: Art and the Essence of Food

A couple Thursdays ago, it seemed like everyone had the same idea to beat the summer heat with a museum visit. I was surprised to find the musuem lot full, which required me to seek parking on the street. This delayed my entry by 10 minutes so that when I finally checked-in and was asked if I was there for the tour, I barely managed to ask “what tour?” and confirm that I hadn’t reserved a spot. No worries, though, as the museum said there was still space available. Just a few minutes later, I was off on a tour!

What better way to learn about an exhibit than to take a tour led by the curator!

All Consuming: Art and the Essence of Food is open for just another week, through August 14. I was happy to visit twice, the second time on a guided group tour.

Per the museum’s website, the exhibit “explores how artists responded to and shaped food cultures in Europe from 1500 to 1900, as shown in a group of 60 paintings, prints, photographs and sculptures from the Norton Simon’s collections. Three distinct themes—“Hunger,” “Excess” and “Sustenance”—examine a range of relationships with eating and drinking, both positive and negative.”

What I enjoyed about the curator-led tour was learning about the high level choices made regarding works to include in the exhibit down to specifics such as how the gallery paint color was selected. Coincidentally, the artwork that the curator chose to highlight on our tour, lined up with some that had caught my eye on my first visit in April. Two for the pop of persimmon color that matched the gallery wall, a Pissarro marketplace painting, an early Mondrian and a photograph by a “new-to-me” Mexican photographer. Those are shown in the gallery above.

As is my museum habit, I purchased a souvenir postcard afterwards to display on the fridge at home. The choice this time was by the French artist Louise Moillon - Still Life with Bowl of Bitter Oranges and a Lemon, 1634, the lone work by a female artist in the exhibit.