Article I chose:

Kuehn, G. (June 01, 2012). Tasting the world: Environmental aesthetics and food as art. Contemporary Pragmatism, 9, 1, 85-98.

In this article Glenn Kuehn connects vies from three different important figures in history in order to prove that food is capable of being art. Marie Antoine Careme is the first. He was a very important chef and believes the “pastry”, a part of food is the epitome of one of the fine arts. (Kuehn 87) He expressed how combining the elements together and laying it out is much like architecture which is a category of fine arts. Langer is another person who did not believe food could be art but that architecture was. Dewey had an environmental approach to art. He states “food offers us a unique awareness and appreciation of those qualitative aspects within experience. (Kuehn 90) The experience you have is what art is all about. I believe Kuehn really summarizes it in page 91. He claims “art does something to us because we are involved with it through our bodily selves”.

An issue brought up in Glenn’s article was that it can be difficult for people to see how food can be art because it is consumed and then it is gone. But I must be consumed in order to be experienced. This question is also brought up in Telfer’s riting. She asks how can it be art when we just destroy it when we eat it? We must eat it in order to judge it. Telfer states that a work of art must be intended for aesthetic consideration. Glenn explains how you must be open to how you get the aesthetic part to the food. To get the food’s aesthetic worth it must be eaten and with that it is categorized in the theory of art where it can be temporary, a process, and is the qualitative experience.

Another issue that isn’t even brought up in Glenn’s article which is if food is art, does that cover all food? In this weeks material we watched two videos: one being slow food and the other, fast food. I think it is safe to say that fast food is not art. It is made to make money and not to be aesthetically pleasing. Glenn does not specify through his whole piece on what type of food is art. I believe however that he was focusing only about slow food since the people he compared through out the article were chefs.

This weeks reading, Food as Art by Elizabeth Telfer, discussed about whether or not we should view food as art. She discusses what it takes for something to be considered art. Many things seemed to be left up in the air. For example she said that art is art if the creator intended it to be but at the same time there is artwork that exists that wasn’t intended to be art. You can appreciate it like art but can’t express emotion with it. Art can typically be viewed or experienced in other generations but food cannot.

Telfer states that art must be aesthetically appealing. At first she seems to be on board with saying food can be art. She then becomes in between the two possibilities when discussing about how food may just be a craft rather than an art. Many people follow a recipe and follow instructions, which would make it a craft not an art. Telfer settles with the conclusion that food is an art minor. It is also simple. Since a cook can create the food like an art piece and discuss the piece, have a style, and reason for everything but it comes down to this: We eat food to nourish our bodies. We see it, taste it, etc. temporarily and it gets copied onto recipes, and you cant express emotions with food like are as well as be able to be “awe”ed by the food. You cannot be moved.

Now in my opinion, food can definitely be art. Not even necessarily only minor art either. Week 1 we began talking about what art is and almost everyone in this class concluded that it could honestly be anything! It just has to first come from your brain! Everything else is just a technicality. You might not like it but food can be art. ESPECIALLY if the cook says so. After reading those excerpts of food descriptions about dishes you can tell it is art. The way the cook describes it using words like contrast and compliment. What this writer also did not consider was how food can be art not in just how it tastes but how it looks as well. There are food sculptures, cakes, etc. that just visually is definitely art. Here is just one example of many below: