On November 6th, Swiss Romanian artist Daniel Spoerri, known for transforming ephemeral dining experiences into permanent artworks, died at 94. Spoerri’s passing was confirmed by the Ausstellungshaus Spoerri, a museum dedicated to his work in Hadersdorf am Kamp, Austria.
Spoerri is best known for his “snare pictures” (tableaux pièges), which marked the beginning of his food-related body of work. This innovative approach involved affixing the remains of meals—such as plates, silverware, and glasses—to boards and displaying them vertically. Spoerri’s cheeky artworks often contained an underlying social commentary, examining class and consumerism while celebrating the beauty of everyday life.
Born in Galați, Romania in 1930 as Daniel Feinstein, he witnessed the beginning of World War II when his father was arrested and killed by the Nazis. In 1942, he escaped antisemitic persecution when his Swiss-born mother moved the family to Switzerland. There, Spoerri initially pursued a dance career, studying at the Zürich Theatre Dance School and later performing with the Bern City Theatre.
After moving to Paris, Spoerri founded Editions MAT (Multiplication d’art Transformable) in 1959. For this project, he produced copies of three-dimensional artwork by artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, and Victor Vasarely, among others. During this time, he became associated with Fluxus and Nouveau Réalisme, collaborating with notable artists such as Yves Klein and Jean Tinguely.
In 1960, Spoerri made a creative breakthrough when he created his first “snare picture,” titled Kichka’s Breakfast. This work preserved the remnants of his girlfriend Kichka’s breakfast left on a table at a Parisian hotel. He glued the leftover detritus to the chair and table before affixing the chair to the wall. This work is part of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City’s collection.
Another notable “snare picture” is Eaten by Marcel Duchamp (1964), where Spoerri used the leftovers of a meal eaten by Duchamp. This work fetched €136,312 ($200,300) at Artcurial in 2008, setting a record for his work.
Spoerri continued to explore culinary themes through his concept of “Eat Art.” In 1968, Spoerri established an eponymous restaurant in Düsseldorf, with a menu characterized by unusual ingredients such as rattlesnake or elephant’s trunk, before opening the Eat Art Gallery upstairs two years later. There, he exhibited food-related, experiential artworks by himself and other artists like Joseph Beuys and Dieter Roth, thereby highlighting the dialogue between art, food, and social commentary.
In recent years, his work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Galerie Krinzinger, Anne Barrault, and Galerie Henze & Ketterer. He moved to Vienna in 2008, where he lived and worked until he died.
