EYE CANDY

20 Top Artists Reimagine Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe

by Steph Eckardt
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
An interpretation of "Le déjeuner sur l'herbe" by Kehinde Wiley. Courtesy of the artist.

Édouard Manet never intended to shock the bourgeoisie when he exhibited what’s now widely considered the world’s first modern painting: Le déjeuner sur l’herbe. Nevertheless, his depiction of an afternoon picnic featuring (gasp!) a naked woman staring directly at the viewer made so many waves that it only took two years after the French artist controversially exhibited it at Paris’s Salon des Refusés for his peers to start riffing on it. It was still so influential nearly a century later that Pablo Picasso followed suit. Now, a full 159 years later, so have more than 30 of today’s top painters. Jeff Koons already paid homage to the painting in 2014, but most of the works featured in “Luncheon on the Grass,” which is on view at Jeffrey Deitch’s Los Angeles outpost through April 23, 2022, were created specifically for the exhibition—and some interpretations are most definitely more recognizable than others. From Kehinde Wiley, Naudline Pierre, and Mickalene Thomas’s reimaginings of the scene with Black subjects to Tala Madani’s portrait of a single brown pickle, take a look inside the show, here.

© 2021 The Robert H. Colescott SeparateProperty Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Robert Colescott, Sunday Afternoon with Joaquin Murietta, 1979. Acrylic on canvas.

Photo byJoshua White, courtesy of the artist

Nina Chanel Abney, Outdoor Dining #1, 2022. Spray paint on canvas.

Photo byJoshua White, courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Christina Quarles, Yer Apart of Everything, 2022. Acrylic on canvas.

Photo byJoshua White, courtesy of the artistand Skarstedt

David Salle, Tree of Life (After Manet), 2021-2022. Oil and acrylic on linen.

Photo by Phoebe D'Heurle, courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York. © Naudline Pierre

Naudline Pierre, In Our Midst, 2022. Oil on canvas.

Photo by Pierre Le Hors, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Eva Presenhuber

Tschabalala Self, 12pm on 145th, 2019-2021. Jean fabric, digital printed t-shirt, velvet, lace, tulle, painted canvas, dyed canvas, acrylic, and flashe on canvas.

© Mickalene Thomas, courtesy of the artist

Mickalene Thomas, Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe les Trois Femme Noires d'aprés Picasso, 2022. Rhinestones and acrylic paint on canvas mounted on wood panel.

Courtesy of the artist

Kehinde Wiley, Lunch with Inettia, Lucemy and Soukenya, 2022. Oil on paper.

Photo by Joshua White, courtesy of the artist and Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles

Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Ode to Enjoyments, 2022. Oil on linen.

Photo by Joshua White, courtesy of the artist and Nicodim

Dominique Fung, Sans Les Mains, 2022. Oil on canvas.

Photo by Tom Powel Imaging, © Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons, Gazing Ball (Manet Luncheon on the Grass), 2014-2015. Oil on canvas, glass, and aluminum.

Courtesy of the artist and Maximillian William, London. © Somaya Critchlow

Somaya Critchlow, Mr Peanut! (The Picnic), 2020-2021. Oil on linen.

Photo by Genevieve Hanson , courtesy of the artist

Cecily Brown, Luncheon on the Grass, 2021-22. Oil on linen.

Photo by Joshua White, courtesy of the artist and Nicodim

Dominique Fung, Sans Les Mains, 2022. Oil on canvas.

Courtesy of the artist and Marc Selwyn Fine Arts, Beverly Hills

Kurt Kauper, Men in the Park, 2022. Oil on Dibond.

Photo by Joshua White, courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Paul McCarthy, CSSC Luncheon on the Grass, 2018. Five lightjet prints.

Photo by Genevieve Hanson, courtesy of the artist and JTT

Sam McKinniss, Bather (Sebastian), 2021. Oil on linen.

Photo by Joshua White, courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech

Vaughn Spann, Juneteenth on the grass (after lunch), 2022. Oil on canvas.

Photo by Joshua White, courtesy of the artist and David Kordansky, Los Angeles

Tala Madani, Pickled, 2022. Oil on linen.

Photo by Joshua White

Liu Xiaodong, Newcomers in the Village-Response to Manet, 2021. Oil on canvas.

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