Theme book Research project

Fruit in art

I saw this picture in The Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2013/mar/26/fabrice-hyber-baltic

It's by Fabrice Hyber who has an exhibition at Baltic, Gateshead until 30th June.

The review is somewhat less than complimentary

Standing among it all is a life sized man made of fruit and veg, like an Arcimbolda painting come to life.  I guess the point is that we are what we eat.  The whole thing is tripe, really, as unoriginal as it is indigestible.

Whatever your opinion it made me smile and wonder what other artists used fruit in their work.

I recalled seeing people represented as fruit a long time ago and did a Google search.. The artist I remembered was Guiseppe Arcimboldo 1527 - 1593.  He was born in Milan and his father was an artist who  worked in the Duomo.  He was commissioned to design stained glass windows and draw the cartoon for the tapestry of the Virgin Mary which still hangs in the Como Cathedral.  He is best known for creating portraits heads made of such objects as fruits, vegetables,flowers, fish and books.   

He arranged these objects in such a way that they made a recognisable likeness of the sitter.

Vortumnus (Vertumno)
http://www.giuseppe-arcimboldo.org

The image below has a duel purpose.  It can be viewed one way as a bowl of fruit and reversed to be a portrait.

Vaso reversible
http://www.giuseppe-arcimboldo.org

These are surreal at a time when the surreal artists were years and years away. Whilst he was lauded by his contemporaries Arcimbolda sank from view until Dali took an interest.  Artists such as Shigeo Fukuda have been influenced by Arcimboldo's style.

I'm afraid the work isn't to my taste, in fact I find it quite horrible, but I have to admire the skill involved and the mastery of the double meaning.

Completely different is Carravagio's Boy with a Basket of Fruit (1593).  Carravagio was interested in painting exactly what he saw, warts and all.  Professor Jules Janick of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture has analysed the contents of the basket and was even able to identify infestations and fungal infections on the fruit.

Carravagio (1593)
Boy with a Basket of Fruit
http://www.famous-artists.net

Carravagios' luscious fruit

Watercolour artist Ann Abgott also uses fruit in her work.  I looked at her work earlier in the course because I liked the way she mingles her colours.

Pear by Ann Abgott

Plums by Ann Abgott

From the textile point of view William Morris is something of a hero of mine.  The whole Arts and Crafts Movement is a style I love and there are times in my life when I've pushed the boat out so that I can have a William Morris print.

The most famous design is probably The Strawberry Thief which was inspired by Morris watching  thrushes stealing his fruit.

Strawberry thief

This design used to be known as Pomegranate but is now Fruit. It was designed in 1864 and shows peaches, oranges, lemons and pomegranates arranged in a tile format.  It was designed as wallpaper but has now been adapted to tapestry and embroidered silk as well.

Fruit

http://www.william-morris.co.uk
www.annabgott.com
www.giuseppe-arcimboldo.org/biography.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_with_a_Basket_of_Fruit