Food for Thought
The lower East Side of New York, where Blume studied art, was full of vegetarian restaurants; many immigrant radicals felt that a strict avoidance of meat went well with political commitment. When Blume learned that a lot of people he admired had been vegetarians—George Bernard Shaw, Tolstoy, Shelley—he adopted the regimen for a while also. But the vegetables being prepared in this painting seem more erotic than political. It's interesting that we can well imagine which vegetables are male and which are female, but the gender of the potato peeler is still ambiguous.
Pictured: Peter Blume, Vegetable Dinner,1927, oil, 25 1/4 x 30 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.
Part 2
Discussion:
Vegetable Dinner
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