Though not a new piece or really considered contemporary Oppenheim’s ‘Luncheon In Fur’ is one of my favorite works of art both for its background and effect on people. A tea set covered in fur would make anyone cringe. just thinking about putting that furry spoon in your mouth or feeling tickled while sipping some early gray is simply just “EW.” This surrealist piece created much debate on meaning and purpose.

Object (or Luncheon in Fur), by Meret Oppenheim. In 1936, Oppenheim wrapped a teacup, saucer and spoon in fur. In the age of Freud, a gastro-sexual interpretation was inescapable. Even today, the work triggers intense reactions at the MoMA

The spark of creation happened for Oppenheim when was having lunch with Picasso, her friend. As the story goes he made a comment on her furry bracelet (one of her early jewelry creations), saying that you can cover anything in fur. To which Oppenheim replied “Even this plate and this cup.” becoming a joke at the table when her tea started to cool she asked the waiter for some fur to wrap her cup up with to keep it warm.

After that she apparently went to the store and created the work we know today.

The bracelet – which the artist fashioned using a brass tube – so delighted her companions that a conversation ensued during which Oppenheim’s best known work, a fur-covered cup, saucer and spoon, was conceived.

The reaction to Oppenheim’s teacup was explosive.

André Breton chimed with his declaration that “beauty will be convulsive or will not be at all.” He called it Le Déjeuner en fourrure (Luncheon in Fur) and exhibited it that year at the first surrealist exhibition dedicated to objects.

“As the talking point of the show, the sculpture became the receptacle of all kinds of theories, fears and longings. This being the age of Freud, a gastro-sexual interpretation was inescapable: the spoon was phallic, the cup vaginal, the hair pubic. For some, the tongue-shaped spoon brought to mind unpleasant sensations of a furry tongue. Others experienced unease at seeing a graceful item of the tea table transformed into something decadent and animalistic; some gagged at the thought of getting a hair or damp tea leaves in their mouth; still others wanted to stroke it.” -npr, The Salt

Personally I see it as a challenge to how we perceive people by the object they carry.  A fine lady sipping her tea at a table midday is respectable and pure, maybe even prestigious and rich. But now covered in fur the teacup seems animalistic and wild. No one of respect would use the teacup.

I also love the idea of playing with man-made matterials, like porclen, and changing it to something more raw like furs or animal skins and seeing the new reactions people have to the object.