Image: Food after Flood, lithograph
Today we restart our posts of art on Saturdays. We started the series to highlight works of art that intersect with the world of food, often with a celebratory theme. With the damage done to the dining world in general and D.C. in particular that seemed off-note and only became more so with the killing of George Floyd and the protest that followed. So we paused the posts a couple months ago.
The work of art that we highlight this week attempts to capture the moment and remind us of the need to not only survive but repair the damage. It is by Dudley H. Morris, Jr. and entitled Food after Flood. It is in the holdings of the National Gallery of Art, but not currently on view (though nothing except the sculpture garden is currently on view).
There is little information about the painting or the artist. The bios online are brief, noting that he was known for town-landscape paintings and was an illustrator. He was born in New York City in 1912, was Chair of the Art Department at Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. He studied at Andover Academy, the Art Students League and Yale University. He died in 1966.
There is little information about this painting (there is a brief reference to it in an exhibit of the La Salle University Museum on WPA-era works), but the image of a community gathering after a disaster to eat seems mostly self-explanatory.
***
Along with restarting our weekly art series, we are also updating our dining guide for D.C. We have scrapped ratings and instead you can sort by the status of a restaurant – whether they are open for dine-in service, take-out, delivery, or closed. We also note if they are offering market-like sales. Along with “status” you can sort by cuisine and neighborhood. There are over 300 places to search in either LIST or MAP format. The “flood” may be receding in D.C. but the economic disaster continues to pound our restaurants large and small. We encourage you to support them, especially the black-owned businesses that contribute so much to our communities and those supporting the cause of justice in various ways (See the list at the bottom of this post for more).
Be safe. Wear a mask. Be considerate to staff.