Lunch Painting

I really enjoyed the trip to the Walker. The tour helped me better understand the motivation behind post modernist work. One piece in particular that interested me after the tour was "Lunch Painting (Minus Objects)" by Michelangelo Pistoletto (1965). It had always bothered me in the past; I didn't understand how a few pieces of wood could be considered art. It's necessary to know the concept behind the art to appreciate it. During the tour I found out the intention of the artist was to have people actually sit down at the table he had built. It is titled as a painting because he wanted the viewer to create it as they sat. This idea was a lot more interesting than judging the table purely on form which I had been doing previously. I am able to fully appreciate it now. During the tour I also learned that the idea of time is very often incorporated into post modernist work. Pistoletto uses time in his piece, whether it has the viewer thinking about the amount of time spent sitting at tables or the time spent actually sitting at his piece. It was exciting to finally learn the meaning behind it. Through some research I found out that the piece is actually part of a set of works titled Minus Objects. This set didn't follow the norms of a collection, where there is usually a recognizable style or theme to all the pieces. His pieces were all different but made sense when shown together. Another piece from the collection I feel is similar to Lunch Painting is titled "Structure For Talking Standing Up". It has a similar idea because he wants the viewer to interact with the piece and use it. They also both serve as places to hold a conversation. It seems that viewer interaction is one of the main purposes behind his work.

Source: http://www.pistoletto.it/eng/home.htm