Friday, June 25, 2010

Food for thought

Part of the intrigue of competitions like the Walters Prize is trying to guess the preferences and likely leanings of the selector. This year’s judge is Vicente Todolí, the recently resigned Director of Tate Modern. 

Todoli hit the headlines when he invited chef Ferran Adria from El Bulli to participate in Documenta 12 in 2007. He also co-edited a book on the famous food guy Food for thought: thought for food with artist Richard Hamilton.

Here are some of the artists he has focused on as a curator over the years.

John Baldessari
James Rosenquist
Richard Tuttle
Tony Cragg
Juan Muñoz
Julião Sarmento
Pedro Cabrita Reis
James Lee Byars
Franz West
Gary Hill
Hamish Fulton
Lothar Baumgarten
Roni Horn
Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen
Richard Hamilton/Dieter Roth
Francis Bacon
Sigmar Polke
Robert Frank

Roughly speaking, that’s:
17 men
2 women
6 Americans
4 British
10 Europeans
1 video artist
3 photographers
10 sculptors
4 painters.

Now, go figure.

Image: Vicente Todolí (left) with chef Ferran Adria