The “Art” of Eating: The 15 Greatest Artist Dishware Collaborations

Written by Joy Yoon (@joyyoon).

Artist collaborations and special projects; you’d have to be locked away on a compound in Trinidad, Texas with the God-fearing, technology shunning Grays to not know what I’m talking about. You see them everywhere, limited editions of everything created by artists who aren’t content with just one medium, and breakout of their confinement by slapping their works on everything else. Some say they do it to help better the aesthetics of the every day man by freeing them from the shitty shackles of Ikea. While the companies that hire them feign long-standing admiration to someone they just Googled ten minutes ago. In actuality, it comes down to the cold, hard, green stuff, that we all love. And, what better place to put your money where your mouth is than the objects you drink and eat off of.

Check out The 15 Greatest Artist Dishware Collaborations.

The ultimate coffee cup experience is The Illy Cup Collection Chandelier featuring limited edition coffee cups designed by artists from 1992-2005. Featuring approximately 330 cups, almost a cup for every day of the year, designed by Louise Bourgeois, Julian Schnabel, Robert Rauschenberg, David Byrne, and others, dropping $60,000 on this is would cement your reputation as ‘King of the Espresso Cups!’ or that you’re perpetually wired.

Iced Tea never looked as good until the “Tea-Over-Ice” pitcher by Tea Forté. A clean design of an upper and lower pitcher, that’s easy to use, and made from hand blown heat resistant glass, stacks up for a great presentation. Designed by company CEO Peter Hewitt who also created the company’s signature pyramid Silken-Tea-Infusers crowned with their signature leaf, this pitcher allows you to flash-chill for the perfect iced tea experience, “elevating iced-tea to a higher level.”

Remember when Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Station was swathed in floral carpeting? It was this guy that did it. And he’s moved on to conquering another aspect of the everyday with his plates for Bernardaud. The New York-based conceptual artist collaborated with the famed French porcelain company to create a pair of dinner plates in black and white for Art Production Fund’s WOW (Works on Whatever). Based on photographs of a wall relief that Stingel began in 2008, he’s created plates look like that might be too beautiful to eat off of. But for someone who likes to eat while looking at art, its two birds with one stone.

Now that Schnabel has designed coffee cups for Illy, he should retire. No really. He became famous in the 1980s for his “plate paintings” where he painted large-scale scenes and portraits on broken ceramic plates and now has painted these Illy cups that have been packaged up smartly in a red and white lifesaver. It’s a sign. Full circle Schnabel, full circle.

Just because I have a rather unsightly scar caused by a Bernardaud plate snapping in half whist I washed it during one Christmas which removed a chunk of my flesh, causing significant blood loss doesn’t mean I hold a grudge…Designed by modern artist Magdalena Gerber, the “Camera Obscura” plates offered in a set of six, are made of the finest Limoges porcelain, and manufactured with the help of Ceramic Copy Systems. By firing ceramic colour pigments 1000°C, it fixes the image onto the porcelain glaze enabling the realization of high quality imagery of fleeting city scenes caught on film. The pictures on the plates show a tiny excerpt from real life as you eat off of them in… real life. Whoa. My mind just exploded.

American artist Geoff McFetridge’s fun and approachable drawings (skateboarders, acrobats, hands, and horses) have been hand painted and inscribed onto Heath’s signature tabletop collection. Many of the pieces are one-of-a-kind paintings done by McFetridge on ceramic, as well as totally new silhouettes to Heath’s 60-year history. But rest assured, all are easy and approachable and the kind of art anyone can understand and enjoy.

In 2007, Damien Hirst produced (note: not handmade) 250 boxed sets of 12 bone china plates to accompany his exhibition ‘Damien Hirst: Superstition’ at Gagosian Gallery. Each plate displayed a “unique” image that could only be found… in the other 250 boxes, all of which had been reproduced from original butterfly grid paintings. Sounds like someone paid $20,000 for a box of insipid.

This Bombay born sculptor with a penchant for metallic may have just created the greatest illusion in a cup. Blending the idea of emptiness and fullness, inside and out in one piece, this set is truly a mini sculpture. A platinum saucer with a hole in the center is not only used to hold the platinum cup and catch spills, but when placed on top of the cup, creates an impression of diffused light whose dimensions are hard to fathom. Creating a “bottomless coffee cup,” that’s figuratively, spiritually, and Zen-tastically good to the last drop.

This isn’t exactly dishware, but you can still find a place for Pierre Blanc’s ceramic pieces marked with his signature twist, on your dining room table. After all, there’s nothing more pleasing to the eyes as well as the stomach than looking at a quality piece of art (recycled antiques with notable imperfections) with hints of “metal”. And if anyone asks, it’s been in the family for generations.

Famous for his large-scale reproductions of banal objects such as balloon animals produced in stainless steel with shiny mirror finishes, Jeff Koons has worked with Illy on two separate occasions. In 2004, we saw his mugs emblazoned with the faces of his kitschy inflatable toys series. Boring Koons, boring. But back in 2001, his simple silhouettes of a giraffe, donkey, elephant, and even kangaroo (heads and backsides) proved to be not only simple, and colorful, but managed to somewhat resemble real art.

Creator of the popular Smorkin Labbit toy produced by Kidrobot and credited for reviving the lost art of concert posters, artist Frank Kozik has finally found time to enjoy the good life. And as he gently sips his Lady Grey out of his Evil Tea Time Cup & Saucer Set, you can’t help but notice how the lovely dark blue detailing gives his cup that authentic china feel, until closer inspection reveals that they’re actually winged skulls. And what about the inverted pentagram with the image of Baphomet that’s revealed every time Kozik lifts the cup to his lips? Not to mention the complete platinum pentacle you’ll find at the bottom as he slurps down the last drops. Next time Kozik invites you over for Evil Tea Time just double check to make sure your tea hasn’t magically turned into blood. I wonder if Satan likes shortbread…

Taiwanese American artist James Jean sure knows how to “keep it real” by bringing the real “China” flavor to this bone china (real cattle bone ash) cup and saucer set made in… England. Jean took his signature blue ink Asian-themed drawings found on his recess prints and slapped them on a cup with a platinum maze border design. It’s a dream on a cup, in a cup, and I want this cup. If you own this coffee set and I know where you live, expect to find it missing and you’d be correct to assume I stole it.

Contemporary art doyenne, Louise Bourgeois aka “Spider Woman,” was a renowned French American artist and sculptor, and one of my favorites. For her collection for Illy “Le jour la nuit le jour” (Day Night into Day), she took the cups, painted to evoke shades of her childhood with archetypal pink and blue, and inscribed a different poetic message on to each one. One message that stands out above all others when it comes to one’s relationship with their first jolt of caffeine in the morning is “Je t’aime.” That’s right coffee/espresso, I love you.

American contemporary artist Ron English likes to have fun. He explores popular brand imagery and advertising and enjoys creating headaches for big corporations with his signature style mash-ups. He’s also well known for his photorealist technique that uses color and collage. Most notable of his photorealist works is Abraham Obama, which was created in 2008 during the Presidential Election fusing together America’s 16th and 44th President. Available now on a cup and saucer set, you to can drink your coffee every morning and lie to yourself about our current economic situation as you cradle a small symbol of hypocrisy... I mean democracy, in your hands. But there’s one American that won’t be doing that anytime soon. My sister, immediately dismissed English’s coffee set as “not only ugly, but gross.” Her response was as Honest Abe as you can get.

In 1990, architect and designer/engineer -- one of the individuals that helped shape form and style throughout the 1980s in Europe when he co-founded the Memphis Group-- Matteo Thun was asked by the Illy family to design a white espresso cup to their precise specifications. Crafted to enhance your coffee experience, a true blend of beauty and functionality that was not only appealing to the eye but also the hand, everything had to be right. The volume and diameter has to be exact, the rim curved to accommodate lips comfortably, and heat conservation at the bottom needed to remain even, thus creating the iconic cup. Although he’s not an “artist,” without Thun, this list would have been significantly shorter.