The visual artist Daniel Spoerri, the inventor of “Eat-Art”, has died

The Swiss visual artist of Romanian origin, Daniel Spoerri, a figure in the artistic movement of new realism and father of “Eat-Art”, which consists of fixing the traces of a meal in a work, died at the age of 94 years old, announced Wednesday, November 6, the Center Pompidou.

“We are deeply saddened by the death of Daniel Spoerri, emblematic figure and founding member of new realism”declared the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art on X.

“His unique look at art, through his “trap paintings” and his unexpected assemblages, was able to capture the moment, the ordinary and the surprising. His legacy will remain a source of inspiration and singular reflection”continued the institution.

“Dirty dish artist”

The Swiss artist of Romanian origin, born in 1930 on the banks of the Danube, in Galati (eastern Romania), is known for his three-dimensional still lifes linked to the art of the table. The principle is simple: at the end of a meal, Daniel Spoerri freezes, by sticking them to the support, the trace of this meal (cutlery, plates, leftover food, packaging, etc.). He calls it “Eat Art”, works and actions featuring food and our eating habits. With this concept, the former dancer founded the “New Realism” movement in 1960 alongside artists like Yves Klein, Arman, Raymond Hains and Jean Tinguely.

Daniel Spoerri even went so far as to manage a real restaurant in Düsseldorf (Germany) between 1968 and 1972, where customers who could afford it could leave with their own work. He doubled the initiative with the creation of the Eat Art Gallery where artists like Cesar, Ben and Arman exhibit edible ephemeral creations while painters like Pierre Soulages participate in some of his banquets.

But the artist will seek to get rid of this label of “dirty dish artist”. In his series of “trompe-l’oeil”, he affixes a real object to a canvas or a tapestry found at flea markets and questions the boundaries between reality and illusion.

His works were the subject of a retrospective in numerous museums, including the Center Pompidou in Paris in the 1990s. More recently, in 2021, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Mamac) in Nice dedicated a major exhibition.