The close proximity of creative artistic work to the art of cooking is fascinating, and yet little notice is taken of it. This publication directs attention to the multifaceted relationship between both places as workshops of untethered inspiration and mysterious alchemy, as sites for creative chaos and orderly thought, and as a social representation of individual refuge. Focus is placed here on the importance and the depiction of the studio and the kitchen today and throughout history: artistic workplaces have gone from being workshops of master artisans, imposing studios, and factory-like lofts to becoming high-tech multimedia labs. This was accompanied by the transformation from archaic fire pit and the farmstead’s efficient kitchen-cum-living room to high-tech equipment. The book features sixteenth-century wood engravings, paintings from the Golden Age of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and works by Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol, and contemporary artists such as Cindy Sherman and Erwin Wurm.
 
Exhibition schedule: MARTa Herford, May 12–September 16, 2012