Eat Drink Art Design

Eat Drink Art Design: Trailblazing Tableware showcased tableware—cups, plates, silverware, tea sets—that redefined the art of dining. Drawn largely from MAD’s collection, the exhibition features 60 aesthetically delectable pieces from beautifully handcrafted mid-century pots, to elegant flatware and goblets, to more conceptual works by artists who use the familiarity of tableware as a frame for contemporary issues.

The show was organized in four parts: Eat looks at functional tableware, such as the Japanese company Wasara’s simple, yet elegant eco-friendly and disposable tableware, manufactured out of the pulp of reed, bamboo, and bagasse (a byproduct of the sugarcane industry); Drink examines drinking vessels of all kinds, including a very rare spiral-shaped wine bottle created by glass master Dale Chihuly; Art investigates how artists have used tableware as a canvas or font of inspiration, as in Cindy Sherman’s Louis XV-style porcelain tea set, in which she is pictured in the costume of Madame de Pompadour; and Design shows how contemporary designers were rethinking tableware in new works such as the Boym Partner’s “Still Life Table,” from their Ultimate Art Furniture series, which uses found paintings as part of the furniture.

This show primarily draws upon items from MAD’s permanent collection.