Ed Ruscha's Chocolate Room Lands in NYC's Museum of Modern Art
As part of ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN, the most comprehensive presentation of his work.
There is now a room in Midtown, Manhattan that is fully covered in chocolate – sort of. Pop artist Ed Ruscha‘s Chocolate Room has landed in New York City’s Museum of Modern Art; Ruscha’s only single-room installation, which needs to be remade every time it is presented, is fully covered in sheets of paper screen-printed with chocolate.
Ruscha originally created this work in 1970 for the United States pavilion in Venice, Italy during the 35th Venice Biennale. “He [saw] little metal tubes of Nestle chocolate paste that [reminded] him of the metal tubes for his oil paints,” curator Ana Torok recalls of his initial inspiration. “So he [decided] to use chocolate, screen printing that chocolate onto hundreds of sheets of paper and tiling those sheets across all four walls of a room.”
For the installation’s MOMA debut, he used an on-site screen press to manually screenprint chocolate paste onto hundreds of sheets of paper – which he then used to line the entire room from floor to ceiling.
MOMA shared a video on Instagram that highlights the installation’s creation from start to finish. After the chocolate is melted, it gets poured onto a giant silk screen. The chocolate is then pushed across the screen, transferring it onto the paper. Once the sheets of paper are dry, they can be handled – and installed in delectable layers on the walls. Check it out below.
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Chocolate Room is open to visitors as part of MOMA’s ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN exhibit, which is on display through January 6, 2024. The exhibit features over 200 of Ruscha’s works – his most acclaimed works as well as lesser-known pieces – in various mediums including painting, drawing, prints, photography, artist’s books, film, and installation. Visit the MOMA’s website for more information.
Elsewhere in art news: Bob Ross’s first television painting is now selling for $10 million USD.
