We love to have fun with food, and as you may recall, we recently told you about a scientific experiment showing that people who ate a salad arranged like a Kandinsky painting said it tasted better and was worth more money than a typical pile of greens.
The experiment inspired us to challenge you to tweet pictures of your food as fine art. And boy, you delivered.
Once we saw @JustEatLife's attempt at Frida Kahlo's self-portrait Rootswithsalmon, purple majesty mashed potatoes and nori standing in for the famous hair and brow, we started getting really hungry.
"We initially dove in with artistic determination, however, staring at salmon Frida gave us a huge laugh in the end. She was tasty!" says the Just Eat Life crew, who live in New York and host a cooking show on YouTube.
We were also inspired by the vertical veggie composition sent in by Jacqueline Langholtz (@ArgosIsland) of Charlottesville, Va. Langholtz tells us her boyfriend, Michael DeMonaco, was making a salad for dinner when she told him about our #NPRfineartfood challenge. Since DeMonaco is currently working on a home remodel inspired by D.C.-born artist Gene Davis, who was known for his colorful vertical stripe canvases, he took his Swiss chard, carrots and cucumbers in that direction.
And it turns out Kandinsky's Painting No. 201 —the one used by the British psychologists at the University of Oxford-- isn't the only work by the painter that's sent people off to the kitchen. Milwaukee Art Museum's chef du cuisine created an entire menu of Kandinsky-inspired dishes for the museum's cafe patrons, including a Bauhaus brat burger; shchi, a Russian cabbage soup; and cookies with psychedelic swirls.
And finally, our own Beth Novey (@BethNovey), a producer on NPR's arts, culture and books desk, sent us two fabulous entries.
Her sculpture, Blackberry Square, recalls Russian painter 's avant garde 1915 piece Black Suprematic Square.
And, we couldn't resist the patriotic fruit kebabs Novey made for the Fourth of July. Naturally, they look like Georgia-born abstract expressionist Jasper Johns' Flag from 1954.
"This was so much fun," Novey tells The Salt. But she has one regret. "I'm only sad I didn't have a chance to re-create some works because that would have been so meta!"
Thanks to everyone for playing with your food!
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDAxODg3MTg0MDEyMTg2NTY3OTI5YTI3ZA004))
