The Swiss visual artist Daniel Spoerri, a major figure in the new realism movement and creator of the concept of eat Art, has died, officials at the Center Pompidou announced on Wednesday, November 6, 2024. In a message published on X, the museum of modern and contemporary art expressed its sadness: “We are deeply saddened by the passing of Daniel Spoerri, iconic artist and founding member of new realism.” He added: “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 continue to nourish inspiration and reflection.”
Born in 1930 in Galati, Romania, Daniel Spoerri is best known for his three-dimensional still lifes, often linked to the world of the table. The principle of his eat-art is simple: after a meal, he preserves the traces of it (plates, cutlery, leftover food, packaging, etc.) by fixing them on a support, thus creating a work.
In 1960, Daniel Spoerri founded the new realism movement with artists like Yves Klein, Arman, Raymond Hains and Jean Tinguely. He even went so far as to open a restaurant in Düsseldorf, Germany, between 1968 and 1972, where customers could leave with a work of art as a souvenir. He also created the Eat Art Gallery, a space where artists like César, Ben and Arman exhibit edible works, while painters such as Pierre Soulages participate in his artistic banquets.
The artist, however, seeks to detach himself from the image of “the dirty dish artist”. In his series “disabuse the eye”he places real objects on canvases or tapestries unearthed in flea markets, questioning the boundaries between reality and illusion. His works have been presented in numerous retrospectives around the world, including a notable one at the Center Pompidou in the 1990s. More recently, in 2021, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Mamac) in Nice dedicated a great exhibition.
