Having tea at the Museum...
5:14 p.m.
There's a new trend all around the world: coffee bars or restaurants at art museums. In fact, we have recommended quite a few since we started this blog. The MNBA has a small coffee store with beautiful art pieces, but it's now temporary closed.
However, we can still walk around its rooms and picture ourselves drinking something in the outskirts of Paris, watching the portrait of Mr Hoschede and his daughter, which Manet painted in 1875.
Portrait d'Ernest Hoschede et sa fille Marthe, by Édouard Manet (1875)
Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 97.5 x 130 cm - MNBA
Or have a cup of tea with the help of Mary Cassatt...
The Cup of Tea, by Mary Cassatt
Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 92.4 x 65.4 cm
Metropolitan Museum, New York
Afternoon tea was a social ritual for middle and high-class women in the 19th century, and artists were keen to paint such habit. Artist Mary Cassat was a true example of that artistic expression. The model of the previous painting, her sister Lydia, lived in Paris with their parents at that moment.
We could also join Mrs Riddle's tea party and admire her marvellous china. Mary Cassatt began this painting in 1883 and it took her two years. Mrs Riddle's daughter objected to the size of her mother's nose so the painting was not made public till 1914. By 1915, the work, exhibited in Paris, caused quite a sensation.
Lady at the Tea Table, by Mary Cassatt (1883-5)
Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 73.7 x 61 cm
Metropolitan Museum, New York
But if we want to have tea in the 20th century, things get a bit complicated…
Le Déjeuner en fourrure (objet), by Meret Oppenheim (1936)
Ttechnique: cup, plate and spoon covered in fur / Measures: cup - diam. 10.9 cm; plate - diam. 23.7 cm; spoon - length 20.2 cm; total height 7.3 cm
MoMA, New York
As it happens, Pablo Picasso and Meret Oppenheim (Germany, 1913–1985) were having coffee in Paris and Pablo could not take his eyes from the furry bracelets worn by Meret.
- Anything could be covered in fur, Pablo said.
- Even this cup, Oppenheim answered.
That's how Lunch in fur was born. The cup and plate were bought in a bazaar and then covered with the fur of a Chinese gazelle. The work exploits the differences: the beauty of the object and its uselessness (nice to touch but impossible to drink from it).
Back in the 21st century, Chilean artist Livia Marin's ceramics are also useless for having tea...
Nomad Patterns, by Livia Marin (2012)
Technique: ceramics, resin, transfer-print
Nowadays, many traditions seem to be lost. This is what the artist is trying to tell us by her intervention on daily-life objects. Marin presented 32 objects, similar to the melted teapot at the Eagle Gallery in London, right where afternoon-tea was an almost sacred ritual.
Keep reading... MoMA Highlights - 350 obras del Museum of Modern Art New York, 2009, MoMA Publishing.
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