The Ultime Cena : Cakes for the Death of Nouveau Réalisme

A twenty-minute walk from the Cenacolo, in the lively Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, lies the Biffi restaurant, which on November 19, 1970, hosted the “Funeral Banquet of Nouveau Réalisme,” the last supper of the Parisian art movement.

Disturbed by the consumer frenzy of the early 1960s, Daniel Spoerri (*1930) joined the Parisian “Nouveaux Réalistes” and found artistic expression in the poetry of the everyday. Ten years later, in Milan, he gathered the group of artists around art critic Pierre Restany for a final supper.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Cenacolo, known worldwide, adorns the refectory of the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. The fresco depicts Jesus with the twelve apostles during the Last Supper on the eve of the crucifixion. The dishes on the table are frugal. The characters are in dismay at Jesus’ words: “One of you will betray me.”

A twenty-minute walk from the Cenacolo, in the lively Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, lies the Biffi restaurant, which on November 19, 1970, hosted the “Funeral Banquet of Nouveau Réalisme,” the last supper of the Parisian art movement. The Swiss inventor of Eat Art, Daniel Spoerri, masterminded this unparalleled Eucharistic celebration. The protagonists were the “pontiff of criticism” Pierre Restany and his disciples, the Nouveaux Réalistes: Arman, César, Christo, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Niki de Saint Phalle, Martial Raysse, Mimmo Rotella, Jean Tinguely, Jacques de la Villeglé, and Yves Klein, who had already passed away in 1962.

Spoerri reserved a table for each member of the group, living or dead, and served them a lavish dinner filled with allusions to their artistic works. Each Nouveau Réaliste invited their followers to partake in the intoxicating sacrament. A 70 x 100 cm lithograph in black and silver, resembling a large condolence card, listed the menu and announced the imminent death. Following three manifestos (1960, 1961, 1963) and the founding act, this was the last document signed by the Nouveaux Réalistes, including the late Yves Klein, whose widow Rotraut signed with an “x for Yves.” For the group of artists formed ten years earlier in Klein’s Paris apartment, this last supper was not a prelude to resurrection.

Betraying the Criticism Pontiff

From 1960, French art critic Pierre Restany shaped the Nouveau Réalisme movement, considering himself its apologist. In the group’s founding act, he sought to merge the diverse styles of its artists into a common discourse: “The Nouveaux Réalistes have become aware of their collective singularity. Nouveau Réalisme = new perceptual approaches to the real.” The unity in diversity so insistently evoked by Restany was a profession of faith in socially critical art. In the affluence and consumerism of the 1960s, the Nouveaux Réalistes centered their art on the banal reality of life and everyday relics, depicted with witty irony, leaving behind the subjective expressions of abstract art. However, it was not so much Restany’s theoretical construct that united them, but rather the contacts, friendships, joint actions, and exhibitions in cities like Milan, Paris, Nice, New York, Cologne, and Munich. Despite their success in international exhibitions between 1961 and 1963, the artists criticized Restany’s verbose attempts to legitimize the group as a single entity. In 1961, Klein, Hains, and Raysse signed a declaration of exit from the group, though they continued to participate in some activities. Two years later, in 1963, Arman called for a “derestanyzation” of the group.

The Pontiff’s Tiara

However, at the frivolous last supper, communion was celebrated once again. While in the Christian Eucharist, bread and wine embody the body and blood of Christ, at Spoerri’s last supper, the heterogeneous works of the Nouveaux Réalistes were consumed, digested, and reflected upon. The dishes were prepared with abundant allusions: for Arman, the artist of accumulations, a heap of eels covered in jelly was served. Christo, the visionary of wrappings, had his menu wrapped in aluminum foil. Above all, ambitious pastry creations were served: a series of cakes made with the help of Motta, the Milanese panettone producer. The most impressive of all was for Pierre Restany: a 70-centimeter-high pontifical tiara covered in white marzipan, golden petals, and colorful icing gems. The cunning Restany left the honor of cutting the cake to Daniel Spoerri, who on that final night, with a vigorous stroke, knocked the tiara from the head of the criticism pontiff.

Daniel Spoerri was born in 1930 in Galati, Romania. In 1949, he began studying dance and subsequently worked as a dancer, choreographer, director, and publisher. He later embarked on a self-taught career as a figurative artist and, in 1960, was among the founding members of the Nouveau Réalisme artist group. He gained international fame with his “tableaux-pièges” (trap-paintings). In the 1960s, he established himself as a culinary artist and founded Eat Art.

Guido Galimberti    guido@guidogalimberti.com