This cubist image is a work by Lernert Engelberts & Sander Plug – its mathematical precision is astounding …… The image is composed of raw foodstuffs, cut in squares of exactly 2,5 x 2.5 x 2,5 and placed at equal distances. For a former maths junk: what could appeal more?

The image is a trailer for the exhibition ‘Dining at the artist’s table’. I went to the Hague to see it – it is on at Museum Mesdag from 26 August to 30 October. Dining at the artist’s table has been developed by trainees from The Art of Exhibiting – a course in exhibition making for young creative professionals that is organised by the Van Gogh Museum every year. I’m very much interested in this course & will be going to the van Gogh tomorrow for an interview – I would sooo like to be in this years team. Exiting!

I liked the exhibition’s catalogue, which doubled as a restaurant guide and showcased the Mesdag-themed lunches and dinners to be had in the area. It would have been great if there had been something – anything – to taste or sample at the museum itself – I know this is bothersome to realise, but wouldn’t it have been fun?

Food has been a subject for artists for the longest time. In this case, it was Mrs Mesdag who focused on putting great food on the table and painting still-lifes of foodstuffs. I myself would have surrounded her still-lifes with some of the contemporary works now on show in other rooms – I do think that would have added interest and precision to a show that is a little divergent. As an example I placed works by Sientje Mesdag, Elspeth Diederix and Holger Niehaus set side by side. They do inform upon each other, don’t they?

Then there were works that were begging to meet with the real-life table in the first room. The image below shows room no 1, then work by Sylvie Zijlman, Itamar Gilboa and Les Deux Garçons. Again, juxtaposing them would have been interesting …. I’d have let go of the contemporaries and created some naughty contrasts.