Vik Muniz. Untitled (Medusa Plate). 1999

Each year since 1988, art collector, software entrepreneur, and MoMA trustee Peter Norton has commissioned an art edition to celebrate the holiday season. Created by well-known contemporary artists represented in the Norton family’s own collection, and sent as gifts to personal friends and members of the art community, these highly collectible art objects are interactive and playful. With the holiday season nearly upon us, we thought it would be fun to share some items in the collection with a weeklong series of blog posts.

One great example is Vik Muniz’s Medusa Plate, which features the artist’s re-creation of Caravaggio’s Medusa (1590, Gallerica degli Uffizi, Florence), rendered in pasta marinara. It can be shown in a traditional display mounting or be used as a serving dish, allowing the Medusa image to be revealed as food is removed. Muniz is known for using materials like wire, sugar, dirt, and chocolate sauce to create images that he then photographs. He describes himself as an alchemist who makes visual magic out of the mundane; two of his most famous works are detailed replicas of the Mona Lisa—one made out of jelly, the other made out of peanut butter.

This unique plate is now available to the public in limited quantities, and all proceeds benefit MoMA PS1.