How Food Replaced Art as High Culture

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/how-food-replaced-art-as-high-culture.html

by dulse • 14 years ago

1 1 14 years ago

dulse• 14 years ago

"A curry is not an idea, even if its creation is the result of one. Meals can evoke emotions, but only very roughly and generally, and only within a very limited range — comfort, delight, perhaps nostalgia, but not anger, say, or sorrow, or a thousand other things. Food is highly developed as a system of sensations, extremely crude as a system of symbols."

I think this is really wrong, but I feel like this is a good pointer to where we are heading in fine cuisine. The false dichotomy in the article is between Old Masters and organic markets/good risotto). But a better apples-to-apples comparison would be between contemporary art and contemporary cuisine. If you compare the emotional experience between an Alinea or El Buli vs. something like Dia:Beacon, it seems like it's getting much closer. I would absolutely describe the experience of eating at Alinea as "emotional" and full of ideas.

The interesting thing is that art isn't just about emotion - it can involve emotion, but it can involve a lot of other things too. What I look forward to is cuisine that can be self-critical, hostile, sarcastic, naive, quiet, empty, etc. What would the Agnes Martin of food look like? The On Kawara? The Merlin Carpenter?

I think we're generally getting more sophisticated in our cultural appreciation for lots of reasons, including the internet allowing much easier dissemination of sophisticated ideas and the flattening of accessibility to good cultural curators. Unlike this author, I don't think food is replacing art: it's just thriving alongside. There's a rising tide that's raising all the cultural boats. I'm really bullish on contemporary art for this reason.

How Food Replaced Art as High Culture

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