Serving up art: Food in works from the SLAM collection

As picnic season on Art Hill resumes in full force, we’re always thinking about what to put in our basket. For inspiration, we took a deep dive through the SLAM collection to find works featuring food. From a 17th-century French painting with a banquet of pheasant and oysters, to 20th-century composition of mouthwatering cakes and pies in a cafeteria, these works are a feast for the eyes.

Banquet Scene with a Lute Player

This 17th-century painting by French artist Nicholas Tournier features a banquet scene with men and women cavorting around a table. Although most of the food has already been consumed, viewers can still see a pheasant, bread, and oysters being served. Tournier’s use of images such as musical instruments and wine goblets suggests themes of debauchery or vice.

Christina’s Day Off (Down in the Dumps II)

A pie forms a halo over the head of a woman in this 20th-century painting by American artist Robert Colescott. The work presents a complex characterization of an African American woman, Christina, who stands front and center of the composition wearing her Sunday best to celebrate her day off. She is surrounded by objects representing her wishes and desires, including a box of chocolates, as well as items depicting her daily drudgery as a domestic worker. Colescott appropriates and critiques stereotypes through the painting, inviting conversations on race, gender, and consumerism.

This work is on view in Gallery 243.

Still Life with a Basket of Fruit

Nothing makes us hungrier than a beautifully executed still life of fruit. This painting by German American artist Severin Roesen delivers, with tendrils of grapevine coiled around juicy grapes, peaches, watermelons, plums, cherries, strawberries, and an apple. Paintings like this one from the 19th century celebrated America’s abundant natural resources and represented pride and optimism for the future.

This painting is on view in Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield Gallery 337.

Jo Baker’s Birthday

This 20th-century painted quilt by American artist Faith Ringgold features Josephine Baker, an African American dancer and St. Louis native. In the composition, Baker lies on a bed with her arms above her head next to a bowl of fruit and a leafy green plant. The quilt is one in a series made by Ringgold telling the story of a fictional African American artist, Willia Marie Simone, an expatriate in 1920s France. Ringgold created the painted quilts to redress the absence of Black women in art history.

This work is on view in Gallery 243.

Pitcher and Fruit Bowl

Geometric shapes define this 20th-century abstract still life by Pablo Picasso. The painting contains recognizable objects including red, gold, and dark green fruit, and a gray bowl with brown fruit, all resting on a table. Picasso often infused his still life paintings with secret meanings, and this one is no exception; the painting contains a portrait of his lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter.

The Blue Mandolin

A white plate with yellow fruit stands out in this Cubist still life by French artist Georges Braque. The 20th-century painting features a wooden table with a dotted cloth and several objects, including a blue mandolin, a glass, and several sheets of music, one reading “VALSE,” or “waltz” in French. Notably, Braque added sand to the paint to give the painting’s surface more texture.

Still Life on Brown and Yellow (Champagne Bottles and Orchids)

This 20th-century still life painting by German artist Max Beckmann features champagne bottles and four pieces of fruit. Viewers can also see a wide, round pot with three large, green orchids in the composition. Large areas of matte maroon and yellow and black paint create a shadowy composition.

Cafeteria Counter

Feast your eyes on this cafeteria scene by 20th-century American painter Wayne Thiebaud. The painting features cakes, pies, melons, and servings of pudding waiting to be devoured. Thiebaud arranged triangular desserts, circular plates, and curved pieces of fruit into rows and columns to emphasize their forms.