STYLING THE ARTIST’S EYE
In addition to the beautiful conversations I’ve had with so many people about the women artists who are the subject of this collection, I’ve also fielded a lot of excited questions about what inspired me to style these pieces on food.
It’s a great question, and a fun story that I hope will remind all of us of the importance of thinking outside of the box, literally and metaphorically, and allowing ourselves time and space to create:
When Sean and I (my dear friend Sean McNanney, the owner of SAVED NY—an incredible cashmere and antiques lifestyle brand) decided to host a preview event for the collection, I was working with his very talented team to come up with how to display these pieces. Coming from an art world background, it was important to me that the conceptual artistic value of these pieces grabbed the viewer first, even though the collection was going to be displayed in a store with other wearable items.
I went through all of the obvious ways that you might display jewelry, and none felt quite right. And then, it so happens that I was on Instagram (I know, shocking) and I saw this incredible interview with the artist Maira Kalman on her recent book, Women Holding Things, and I loved the visual of a grumpy woman carrying the largest cabbage the artist had ever seen and was so moved by what she went on to say about how we as women hold and accommodate so much for so many others. It really resonated with me.
photo courtesy of Maira Kalman
That cabbage planted a seed and later that week, I was at the grocery store with this question churning in the back of my mind,
“How can I display these artworks to invite a new perspective about art history and grab the viewer’s imagination?”
And then I saw the mushroom to end all mushrooms:
And so many things, from Maira Kalman to Judy Chicago’s feminist feast The Dinner Party, to Meret Oppenheim’s Le Déjeuner en fourrure to Laila Gohar and everything so ground-breaking in food and florals as art right now clicked.
Meret Oppenheim. Object. Paris, 1936. image courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art.
Laila gohar merengue swans and tattooed potatoes for the new Yorker.
And the rest is history, so to speak!
This umami mushroom collection featured a two-headed king trumpet mushroom that was the size of a chicken breast and the epiphany hit me right there in the produce section: The eyes should be ON FOOD, the ultimate source of cultivated sustenance—a direct metaphor for how women so often carry, hold, and sustain their partners, and families, and communities.
My routine grocery shopping trip transformed into a full-blown exercise in produce aesthetics as I considered the formal merits of each pear and bok choy and tested them for their ability to stand upright… Suffice it to say I had never shopped for food like that before, and it was a new way of looking at the world. I found the specimens with character and irregularity stood out over those with perfect symmetry, and I love the way the juxtaposition of each pairing carries a sort of personality.
Anni Albers on an aubergine
The acrylic cases and sheets of colored paper became a way to frame and orient the viewer who came to the event, drawing their eye in toward something that felt rare, modern, and special in a tablescaped spread of fruits and vegetables. I loved how this approach nodded to what is extraordinary about an artist’s eye—it’s a way of seeing things that separates these gifted creators from the rest of us.
Willie “Ma Willie” Abrams on meyer lemon
Francoise Gilot’s eyes on cabbage
Frida Kahlo on agave
Lavinia Fontana on a pear
Audra Kiewiet de Jonge with The Artist’s Eye display at SAVED NY in the West Village
Where do you find inspiration? Are there any ways you practice being open to creativity in this crazy, visually inundated world we live in?
Would love to hear your thoughts on and questions! Write to me at audra@artartefact.com.
Warmest,
Audra
image credits art/artefact and kate mcreynolds.
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