The Art of Food
From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
Food is culture. Whether farm-raised or factory-made, traveling from kitchen to mouth, what one eats is often a means of understanding time, place, and people. The Art of Food: From the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation brings together works from some of the most preeminent postwar and contemporary artists who used food as their subject matter. This exhibition explores the many identities of food in daily life: whether a source of pleasure, a reason for gathering, a mass-produced commodity, or a reflection of social ideologies and divisions.
The Art of Food features works from important postwar artists including Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, David Hockney, John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, and Jasper Johns, alongside the work of contemporary artists, like Alison Saar, Lorna Simpson, Enrique Chagoya, Rachel Whiteread, and Jenny Holzer, among others. This exhibition features more than 100 artworks in mediums including drawings, paintings, photographs, prints, sculptures, and ceramics by 37 artists.
The Art of Food, a traveling exhibition, is organized by the University of Arizona Museum of Art and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.
About the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation:
At age 14, Jordan D. Schnitzer bought his first work of art from his mother’s Portland, Oregon contemporary art gallery, evolving into a lifelong avocation as a collector. He began collecting contemporary prints and multiples in earnest in 1988. Today, the collection has become one of the most important post-war and contemporary collections in all mediums, exceeding 20,000 objects and has grown to be the country’s largest private collection of prints and multiples. He generously lends work from his collection to qualified institutions with no additional fees. The Foundation has organized over 180 exhibitions and has had art exhibited at over 160 museums. Mr. Schnitzer is also President of Schnitzer Properties, a privately owned real estate investment company based in Portland, Oregon, owning and managing office, multi-tenant industrial, multi-family and retail properties in six western states.
The Foundation was established in 1997 as a non-profit organization to manage the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation. The Foundation publishes scholarly brochures, exhibition catalogues, and catalogues raisonnés in conjunction with exhibitions drawn from the collections. The Foundation also funds museum outreach and programming – especially to lesser served communities – furthering the mission of letting artists speak to us, through their art, on important issues facing society.