Cuisine is a sardonic homage to the world of food by the much fêted London-based Argentinian artist Pablo Bronstein whose work ranges from drawing to choreography and performance, inspired by a fascination with architecture, specifically architectural drawings from 18th Century France and the Baroque age which are reimagined by the artist.
This interest is evident in Cuisine which includes full-colour images and details of thirty-five recent paintings and drawings, covering vast aspects of food production and presentation. Spinning a narrative of surreal excess and decadence, the paintings depict a compendium of factories, implements, cutlery, and actual foodstuffs in his signature irreverent style, brought into greater focus through roughly laid out details. Most of the works are reproduced here for the first time and are accompanied by descriptive captions penned by the artist.
There are a further twenty-seven black-and-white photographs taken by Bronstein especially for the publication which showcase cakes and desserts, sculpted by him, evoking the unpalatable and overwrought creations found in early twentieth-century recipe books.
Here is the artist's own description of Cuisine from the publisher's site:
'It is often said that each country gets the cuisine it deserves. As I have never left Neasden, a hamlet northwest of London, I unfortunately cannot bear witness to this. Much of my knowledge of food comes from a small library of books, from the supermarkets around the North Circular Road, and from my imagination, abetted by the sorcery of television chefs.
That I remain entirely ignorant of the subject should not hamper your reading of this book, however. Cuisine is a science that is constantly advancing. Therefore, any attempt to look at cooking from the point of view of aesthetic appreciation or historical investigation will hopefully find its place on the shelves as a worthy antidote to the forward thrust of culinary fashion.
This small publication cannot, of course, describe the principal role of food, which is in the creation of a food mountain ten miles high, and which I hear is of great beauty. What it proposes instead, as a paltry substitute, is an attempt through my palette of acrylic paints, at touring the ‘world on a plate’, which for here is a fantasy through the endless variety of perishable products and their method of making and serving.'
Archivorum, 244pp, hardcover, 2024
