Daniel Spoerri

Although not in the public eye quite so much as somebody like Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol or Damien Hirst, Daniel Spoerri is nonetheless probably one of the key figures in post-war art.

He is best known for his 'snare pictures' - a kind of assemblage in which the artist 'snares' all of the objects present in a particular scene. One famous work, for example, saw Spoerri fix all the remnants of a meal (including glasses, cutlery, left-over food, bowls etc) to the table and then mount the resulting piece on a wall in a gallery. On one occasion this concept was expanded by the addition of the Anecdoted Topography of Chance which numbered all of the objects and listed information about them.

Spoerri is one of the first (if we ignore William Blake and medieval illuminated manuscripts) to blur the line between art and text and to realize the importance of accompanying explanatory literature. He is undoubtedly one of the major influences upon the contemporary art world.

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