Meals As Art At MoMA

MoMA's Delicious New Exhibition

Warning: The second-floor galleries at the Museum of Modern Art may soon smell like curry. It won't be wafting from the cafe down the hall. This will be from one of MoMA's latest acquisitions, and it's all in the name of art.

In the tradition of Gordon Matta-Clark's restaurant project "Food" in SoHo in the 1970s, the Argentine artist Rirkrit Tiravanija began creating meals as exhibitions 20 years later. At 303 Gallery in SoHo in 1992 he presented "Untitled (Free)," moving the gallery's back office to the display space in front ,so the public could see how a dealer works. He then furnished the emptied office with a temporary kitchen -- a refrigerator, cooking utensils, tables and chairs -- and cooked Thai curry, giving it free to anyone who wanted it. He recreated the installation in 2007 at the David Zwirner gallery in Chelsea using the original elements and renaming the work "Untitled (Free/Still)."

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