I WANT Candy: The Sweet Stuff in American Art

Americans hunger for sweet things and twentieth-century mass marketing has turned American artists attention to candy, the forbidden fruit in the exhibition I WANT Candy: The Sweet Stuff in American Art organized by the Hudson River Museum. I WANT Candy examines the attractions and the tempting representations of a sweet tableau.

In her famous quote about the aesthetic joys of colored sugar, Simone de Beauvoir speaks to the enduring appeal of the food of decadence, frivolity, and abandonment:

I would stand transfixed before the windows of the confectioners' shops, fascinated by the luminous sparkle of candied fruits, the cloudy lustre of jellies, the kaleidoscope inflorescence of acidulated fruit drops -- red, green, orange, violet: I coveted the colors themselves as much as the pleasure they promised me.

That desire so inherent in Beauvoir s longing vision of sweets runs through most of the contemporary artworks in this exhibition. American artists fascination with the seductive lure of candy has increased dramatically since the 1960s when Pop Art began to challenge the severity of Modernism. Many of the works on view represent a return to figurative work and are indebted to Pop s embrace of kitsch. In Will Cotton s Candy Curls, 2005, a modern-day Marie Antoinette s headdress is literally transformed into a cornucopia of spiraling peppermint sticks topped by an ice-cream cone hat.

This easygoing decadence has not always pervaded American art. Perhaps uncomfortable with the sensual visual and gustatory pleasures of sugar, candy appears infrequently in 19 th-century still life. A few artists such as Raphaelle Peale and Joseph Decker incorporate the beauty of sugar into their work but always in keeping with their restrained aesthetic style, which does not suggest careless abundance to a somewhat puritanical American audience.

The menu has changed and so have artists perceptions. In paintings, watercolor and sculpture, I WANT Candy explores their work through the themes of Sweet Tableau: The Still Life Tradition; Candyland: The Innocence of Childhood; Sugar: The Food of Desire, Too Sweet: The Cavity of Consumerism and The Witch s Abode: Candy as Canvas.

Contemporary artists in the exhibition include:Becca Albee, Julie Allen, Peter Anton, John Baeder, Barton Lidice Benes, Mindy Best, Morgan Bulkeley, Neil Christensen, Orly Cogan, Sharon Core, Will Cotton, Cindy Craig, James Del Grosso, Marylyn Dintenfass, Dan Douke, Travis Conrad Erion, Emily Eveleth Janet Fish, Audrey Flack, Cara Wood Ginder, Ralph Goings, Susan Graham, Red Grooms, Kirsten Hassenfeld, Bruce Helander, Richard Hickam, Ruth Grace Jervis, Zane Lewis, Mary Magsamen & Stephan Hillerbrand, Melissa Martens, Kim Mendenhall, Don Nice, Patricia Nix,Brendan O Connell, John Salvest, Masaaki Sato, Jessica Schwind, Beverly Shipko, Tjalf Sparnaay, Wayne Thiebaud, and Stephanie Jaffe Werner.

The exhibition is organized at the Hudson River Museum by Bartholomew F. Bland, Exhibitions Curator