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The Modern Art Cookbook
Matisse, Picasso, Hockney—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 Kerouac’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.
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 world’s greatest artists. In between, she supplies numerous recipes from these artists—including Ezra Pound’s poetic eggs, Cézanne’s baked tomatoes, and Monet’s madeleines—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.
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 world’s greatest artists. In between, she supplies numerous recipes from these artists—including Ezra Pound’s poetic eggs, Cézanne’s baked tomatoes, and Monet’s madeleines—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.
300 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 2013
2 people are currently reading
164 people want to read
About the author
Mary Ann Caws
173 books63 followersMary Ann Caws is an American author, translator, art historian and literary critic.
She is Distinguished Professor Emerita in Comparative Literature, English, and French at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, and on the film faculty. She is an expert on Surrealism and modern English and French literature, having written biographies of Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, and Henry James. She works on the interrelations of visual art and literary texts, has written biographies of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, and edited the diaries, letters, and source material of Joseph Cornell. She has also written on André Breton, Robert Desnos, René Char, Yves Bonnefoy, Robert Motherwell, and Edmond Jabès. She served as the senior editor for the HarperCollins World Reader, and edited anthologies including Manifesto: A Century of Isms, Surrealism, and the Yale Anthology of 20th-Century French Poetry. Among others, she has translated Stéphane Mallarmé, Tristan Tzara, Pierre Reverdy, André Breton, Paul Éluard, Robert Desnos, and René Char.
Among the positions she has held are President, Association for Study of Dada and Surrealism, 1971–75 and President, Modern Language Association of America, 1983, Academy of Literary Studies, 1984–85, and the American Comparative Literature Association, 1989-91.
She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, and a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities.
In October 2004, she published her autobiography, To the Boathouse: a Memoir (University Alabama Press), and in November 2008, a cookbook memoir: Provençal Cooking: Savoring the Simple Life in France (Pegasus Books).
She was married to Peter Caws and is the mother of Hilary Caws-Elwitt and of Matthew Caws, lead singer of the band Nada Surf. She is married to Dr. Boyce Bennett; they live in New York City.
She is Distinguished Professor Emerita in Comparative Literature, English, and French at the Graduate School of the City University of New York, and on the film faculty. She is an expert on Surrealism and modern English and French literature, having written biographies of Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf, and Henry James. She works on the interrelations of visual art and literary texts, has written biographies of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, and edited the diaries, letters, and source material of Joseph Cornell. She has also written on André Breton, Robert Desnos, René Char, Yves Bonnefoy, Robert Motherwell, and Edmond Jabès. She served as the senior editor for the HarperCollins World Reader, and edited anthologies including Manifesto: A Century of Isms, Surrealism, and the Yale Anthology of 20th-Century French Poetry. Among others, she has translated Stéphane Mallarmé, Tristan Tzara, Pierre Reverdy, André Breton, Paul Éluard, Robert Desnos, and René Char.
Among the positions she has held are President, Association for Study of Dada and Surrealism, 1971–75 and President, Modern Language Association of America, 1983, Academy of Literary Studies, 1984–85, and the American Comparative Literature Association, 1989-91.
She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, and a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities.
In October 2004, she published her autobiography, To the Boathouse: a Memoir (University Alabama Press), and in November 2008, a cookbook memoir: Provençal Cooking: Savoring the Simple Life in France (Pegasus Books).
She was married to Peter Caws and is the mother of Hilary Caws-Elwitt and of Matthew Caws, lead singer of the band Nada Surf. She is married to Dr. Boyce Bennett; they live in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 12, 2025
The mix of artworks, recipes from famous artists and general excerpts and poems about food makes for a fun read, although I don't think I'll make many of the actual recipes!
March 28, 2022
When I first bought this book, I thought these would be recipes inspired by modern art pieces and I could not be any more wrong. This book contains so much art and passion in it, but also so there is so much you can learn, it was an utmost pleasure.
Like almost any art book, this one too begins with Marcel Proust whose intricate way of seeing beauty it what may seem as almost entirely ordinary shaped the 20th century. The book not only contains recipes, it contains the artists own or favorite ways to prepare food and put into connection with either their own art or different artists throughout the 20th century visual arts and poetry.
If you want to read and learn more about modern art in different form but also advance your culinary knowledge and expand it in unique way, I would highly recommend this book because Mary Ann Caws will make you hungry, curious and fascinated at the same time with longing as the aftertaste.
Like almost any art book, this one too begins with Marcel Proust whose intricate way of seeing beauty it what may seem as almost entirely ordinary shaped the 20th century. The book not only contains recipes, it contains the artists own or favorite ways to prepare food and put into connection with either their own art or different artists throughout the 20th century visual arts and poetry.
If you want to read and learn more about modern art in different form but also advance your culinary knowledge and expand it in unique way, I would highly recommend this book because Mary Ann Caws will make you hungry, curious and fascinated at the same time with longing as the aftertaste.
October 16, 2016
Why do I keep reading Art Cookbooks? They never give me what I want from either genre. I seem to want a serious study that doesn't exist. Or does it?
October 14, 2018
Recipes to try:
Sherried Crab
Sesame chicken for Miro
Timeless beef, mushroom, instant coffee, & Irish whiskey stew
Brecht’s favourite potato bread
Croissants with Roquefort
Paul cezanne’s brousse with honey and almonds
Casquitos de limon
Madeleines au citron
Almond cookies
Emily Dickinson’s gingerbread
Sherried Crab
Sesame chicken for Miro
Timeless beef, mushroom, instant coffee, & Irish whiskey stew
Brecht’s favourite potato bread
Croissants with Roquefort
Paul cezanne’s brousse with honey and almonds
Casquitos de limon
Madeleines au citron
Almond cookies
Emily Dickinson’s gingerbread
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews