Chez Picasso, 1998

In 1998 the theme of the Oxford Symposium was 'Food in the Arts.'

The performance called 'Chez Picasso', with performance artist Alicia Rios costumed as a Picasso puntillist portrait of Manola (1917) and Raymond Sokolov, an editor of The Wall Street Journal, dressed as a harlequin. Playing a hard-to-please customer in a restaurant, Ms Rios ordered a succession of dishes from Mr. Sokolav her waiter. The 'blue period' special was inedible, the 'rose period' dish consisted of synthetic-smelling pink Spanish candy, and the 'cubist' dish was a detailed reconstruction of Picasso's 1914 sculpture, Still Life with Fringe, right down to the slanting table. Ms Rios' frustration was relieved when the sausage and bread represented in the sculpture materialized as slices of chorizo and crackers that were passed around the large audience.

-Paul Levy, The Wall Street Journal Europe, 11.9.98