by Kealey Boyd, Hyperallergic Media, JANUARY 14, 2016
Marilyn Minter’s Dirty Visions of Foods, Faces, and Feet
Minter’s appropriation of the innocuous into something more savory is exemplified with the 100 Food Porn (1976) paintings. These highly cropped images of food being prepared are a strange merger of commercial visual vocabulary and art. The easily identifiable foods are rendered with benday dots, paint drips, and the tools that will be used to devour them. Whether the tools are fingers, a knife, or scissors, the viewer can practically hear the wet crunch of a crawfish head wrenched from its body, the crackling pop of a melon pulled in two, or the sounds of a knife navigating the shifting terrain of a green bell pepper, from its hard skin to its soft interior that will spew seeds when torn. The visceral quality of the raw food, with its dripping paint, creates a visual pleasure that elevates and abstracts the familiar.
Analysis: Marilyn Minter does an amazing job of invoking the sensual experience of eating through painting. It’s incredible how strongly one can remember sound, smell, textures, and taste just by looking at these paintings.
