Nestled deep in Manhattan’s East Side, lies an unassuming black fronted building that advertises itself as a restaurant and general store. Yet Serendipity 3, on 227 E 60th Street, could be considered anything but pedestrian. During the 1950s, Andy Warhol, the famous American artist, drew immense inspiration from the cafe’s menu of ice creams. Legend has it that Warhol, who was still a struggling artist in those early years, would exchange his illustrations for meals. Serendipity would also play host to Warhol’s famous coloring parties, where friends were invited to create and color illustrations, many of which involved ice cream. The production methods developed at those parties would become the blueprint for those adopted at Warhol’s legendary studio, the Factory, in the 1960s.
Warhol, however, isn’t the first artist to find inspiration from ice cream nor is he likely to be the last. A long list of artists have found inspiration from ice cream in various formats. Below are a list of our other three favorite artists inspired by ice cream:
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso’s “The man in a straw hat and an ice cream” pays a surrealist homage to one of the world’s favorite desserts. Painted while relaxing in the south of France near the sea in 1938, Picasso was clearly no stranger to the soothing comfort of an ice cream on hot summer’s day. The green tongue licking the cone says it all, as does the ice white color of the cone, which seems to invoke the cooler blue and green hues of the body. These are juxtaposed by the hotter yellows of the hat and the red within the beard, both undoubtedly a reflection of the temperature outdoors. That Picasso, one of the best and arguably most revolutionary figures in 20th century art, found inspiration from a simple ice cream, says a lot about the merits of ice cream for artists both as an object of study but also as a snack.
Wayne Thiebaud
Less abstract than Picasso, and more appreciative of traditional geometry in a more realistic setting, American pop artist Wayne Thiebaud regularly featured ice cream in his work. Susan Goldman Rubin in her book Delicious: The Life & Art of Wayne Thiebaud writes that Wayne worked entirely from memory. “He remembered the hot dogs, hamburgers, and ice-cream cones on the Long Beach boardwalk.“ That intimacy certainly carries over in his work with ice cream and other food subjects. “Four Ice Cream Cones” exemplifies Thiebaud’s 1960s work around sugary treats with its impasto technique of multiple short strokes of layered oil paint in order to give the depictions of the ice cream scoops their raised and realistic texture.
Jonathan Kambouris
The most contemporary on our list is Brooklyn based photographer and self-proclaimed foodie Jonathan Kambouris. His photography subjects span everything from beers to death row last meals. But “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream” may represent his most playful piece of work to date. Inspired by an ice cream story he shot for the New York Times, Kambouris went all out with this photography series, collaborating with nail and food stylists to give an incredibly detailed finish to his ice cream still life photos. Meanwhile, the melted ice cream dripping down each hand leaves observers unavoidably reminiscent of childhood summers eating their favorite ice cream flavors, cones and all. All told this series of photographs, for us anyway, truly captures the essence of everything ice cream.
Many More
Warhol, Picasso, Thiebaud, and Kambouris, no matter how great, only capture a fraction of the influence ice cream has had on art and artists. Antonio Ermolao Paoletti, Henry Hintermeister, Norman Rockwell are also notable mentions from a near infinite list of artists with new ones continuing to crop up everyday and even selling at some high prices. For example, at the most recent 2022 Art Basel here in Miami, artist Ed Clark’s New York Ice Cream sold for approximately $1.2 million to a private collector. Proof enough that ice cream inspired art certainly still has a huge audience.
Get Inspired By Dippin’ Dots
As providers of ice cream, we know just how inspiring ice cream can be, especially our own Dippin’ Dots brand. Our unique multi-colored flash-frozen ice cream beads are arguably works of art on their own. That’s why we would love to see some of your own Dippin Dots inspired art. Come down to our Westland Mall location to be inspired and then submit your art to us so we can display it on our social media channels. To find out how to get more involved with Dippin’ Dots Miami email us at [email protected]
