ROSLYN HARBOR, NY.- Feast for the Eyes is an exploration of how food has always inspired artists. The exhibition opened at Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor, New York on July 30, 2016, and remains on view through November 6, 2016. Feast for the Eyes, a sweeping two-floor exhibition focused on food and dining in art, features works by a wide range of artists, including Audrey Flack, Red Grooms, George Grosz, Henri Matisse, Claes Oldenberg, Cindy Sherman and Andy Warhol, among many others.

According to guest curator Franklin Hill Perrell “Food has always been celebrated in art.” He pointed out that food has been a inspiration from man’s earliest times, from cavemen depicting the hunt, to Greek and Romans depictions of food and feasting.” Perrell said that Feast for the Eyes brings art related to food and dining into the present day with 20th century movements such as realism and photorealism. Perrell said that A Feast for the Eyes would include work reflecting these movements but “we’re going to concentrate mostly on the 20th century,” to show modern sensibilities.

Drawn from a wide variety of media, the exhibition offers viewers eclectic portrayals of feasts, eateries, restaurants, cafés, groceries, and table settings. Included are luscious depictions of edible delights by artists such as Ben Schonzeit, Gina Beavers, Luigi Benedicenti and Wayne Thiebaud. Berenice Abbott contributes iconic 1930s photographs of the Automat and other dining destinations of New York City. The designer Judith Leiber makes fabulous jeweled evening bags modeled after sensuous fruits and vegetables. Perrell said that the exhibition includes quite a number of works by women artists. “They weren’t chosen because they were women,” said Perrell, “but because they were the highest-quality works.”

Stylistically, the works range from a classic 1908 still life by William Merritt Chase to a 1973 Pop Art painting by Roy Lichtenstein.

Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld shows celebrity diners from stage and screen in his famed line drawings while The New Yorker’s Roz Chast pens humorous cartoons on a range of culinary topics. Photorealistic works from the 1970s to the present day by Don Eddy, Ralph Goings and others portray a variety of gastronomic experiences. Among the Long Island artists represented in A Feast for the Eyes are Frank Olt, Susan Cushing, Richard Gachot, Bruce Lieberman, Christian White and Joe Szabo.

In his essay to accompany the exhibition, curator Franklin Hill Perrell noted that the mostly 20th and 21st century works in the exhibition are predominately realism, especially works by photo- or hyper-realists, overlapping movement that according to Perrell “have been going strong into the third generation.:

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum will be offering many public programs for adults and family groups. To learn about these programs, visit nassaumuseum.org/events.