Just Do It

I'll Eat All of You: Sendak and Food


	print	email	reply	rss feed

Published: Sep 10, 2008

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Wed., Sept. 17, 6 p.m., free with admission (RSVP suggested), Rosenbach Museum and Library, 2008-2010 Delancey Place, 215-732-1600, rosenbach.org

Remember when psychoanalysis obliterated any notion you held of childhood purity? On Wednesday, the Rosenbach will go there again. The museum, which is hosting a yearlong exhibition of works by artist and children's author Maurice Sendak, will hold a gallery talk on how food plays into Sendak's works, often as a stand-in for sex, aggression and all things pleasure principle.

"There's a lot of different ways it materializes, such as children who threaten to eat other characters," says curatorial assistant Kathy Haas, who will give the lecture. "Kenny in Kenny's Window threatens to eat his teddy bear. Mickey [from In the Night Kitchen] is swimming naked in a bottle of milk. You can draw your own conclusions from that."

The talk is based on interviews Sendak has given, in which he's discussed the role of food and eating in his work. It's not always as base as sex and murder — food is connected to such a primal part of our brains that some of our strongest memories are tied to it. In the Night Kitchen, for instance, features a dreamscape of New York in which skyscrapers are made of food and packaging that Sendak felt connected to from his childhood.

So much for a cookie just being a cookie.