One of The New School Art Collection’s rarely seen and most significant works, Roxy Paine’s\u00a0Dinner of the Dictators<\/i>, 1993-1995, returns to campus after a yearlong loan to the\u00a0Natura Naturans\u00a0<\/i>exhibition in Villa Panza, Varese, Italy.<\/p>\n
Dinner of the Dictators\u00a0<\/i>is a foundational work by the artist, and has informed other bodies of work, particularly his\u00a0Specimen Cases<\/i>\u00a0and more recent\u00a0Dioramas.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0Paine has often translated his fascination with systems of knowledge into hyper-real tableaux where fact and fiction\/space and time converge and collapse. Acting as visual metaphors for greater social and cultural investigations, Paine\u2019s works propose open-ended inquiries and offer numerous points of entry.\u00a0Dinner\u00a0<\/i>assembles the favored meals of twelve historical figures the artist has classified as dictators – from Genghis Khan to Papa Doc Duvalier. Through the lens of food, power and politics, this exhibition expands Paine\u2019s initial inquiry, asking The New School community to further consider the historic, economic and sociopolitical implications of food.<\/p>\n