Just Good Eats For U Diner
Portfolio
Just Good Eats For U Diner
November 1971
Portfolio with offset photolithographs
7/100
Overall: 28.5 x 33.8 cm (11 1/4 x 13 5/16 in.)
Gift of the photographer
1973.0059.0001-0008
Inscriptions verso (pencil): 7/100 Heinecken / Los Angeles Nov '71
verso (printed between the food selections in the original menu):
Documentary Photograms by Robert F. Heinecken
This suite of eight original lithographs were printed by the artist using the offset method
The work represents five typical feeding times of the American middle class
Breakfast, Coffee Break, Lunch, Cocktails and Dinner were selected as the U S of A table d' hôte
The original skiagraphic images were made by exposing actual foods/meals to light sensitive materials, which were then transferred to aluminum plates
The final lithographic prints are on Rives heavyweight paper in black and (chocolate) brown ink
They consist of various food/meal combinations resulting from an exploration of the aleatory nature of the printing phase
Each of the portfolios in the edition of 100 were made with the same initial sets of pictures but no two prints are identical and no two portfolios contain exactly the same prints. 50 artist's proofs of individual prints were also made.
Foods included in the portfolio / Breakfast: Bacon, Two Eggs, Toast and Juice / Doughnuts and a cup of coffee / Lunch: Hamburger, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Cheese, Potato Chips, Pickle and Coke / Cocktails: Martini, Olives, Crackers, Cheese, Pâté, Cocktail Sausages and Stick Pretzels/ Dinner: Pork Chops, Peas, Mushrooms, French Fries, Asparagus Tips and Mixed Green Salad
A Grommet is provided for wall hanging
verso (printed between the food selections in the original menu):
Documentary Photograms by Robert F. Heinecken
This suite of eight original lithographs were printed by the artist using the offset method
The work represents five typical feeding times of the American middle class
Breakfast, Coffee Break, Lunch, Cocktails and Dinner were selected as the U S of A table d' hôte
The original skiagraphic images were made by exposing actual foods/meals to light sensitive materials, which were then transferred to aluminum plates
The final lithographic prints are on Rives heavyweight paper in black and (chocolate) brown ink
They consist of various food/meal combinations resulting from an exploration of the aleatory nature of the printing phase
Each of the portfolios in the edition of 100 were made with the same initial sets of pictures but no two prints are identical and no two portfolios contain exactly the same prints. 50 artist's proofs of individual prints were also made.
Foods included in the portfolio / Breakfast: Bacon, Two Eggs, Toast and Juice / Doughnuts and a cup of coffee / Lunch: Hamburger, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Cheese, Potato Chips, Pickle and Coke / Cocktails: Martini, Olives, Crackers, Cheese, Pâté, Cocktail Sausages and Stick Pretzels/ Dinner: Pork Chops, Peas, Mushrooms, French Fries, Asparagus Tips and Mixed Green Salad
A Grommet is provided for wall hanging
TextRobert Heinecken made the images for this portfolio of lithographs by setting the contents of meals on top of photographic paper and exposing the configuration to light. He used the resulting photograms (photographs made without a camera or lens) to create printing plates for an edition of lithographs. The eight prints came with a menu, cleverly annotated by the artist, and a simulated landscape painting, all enclosed in the kind of plastic sleeve commonly used to hold family-style restaurant menus. A shrewd comment on both consumer culture and the practice of documentary photography, the portfolio is also best appreciated as a group of objects, rather than a selection of images.
PortfolioItem
