MoMA curator Barbara London, who is responsible for Song’s current show there, was on hand, as were other curators, including the International Center for Photography’s Christopher Phillips. Writer Barbara Pollack, who is working on a book about Chinese art, was there, as were scads of other Chinese art aficionados, including downtown dealer Ethan Cohen, who, between bites, raved that Song’s project represents “the essence of Chinese art — painting and food. You see something beautiful and then you experience the satisfaction of eating — it’s a total aesthetic experience!”

Cohen was also moved to recall several art-and-food-related moments in his own gallery, including showing Zhang Hong-Tu’s scholar’s table made of meat, and a benefit for the Asia Society, which he referred to as an “Orphic Feast,” where chef du jour Daniel Boulud contributed “food art.” “It was a whole exhibition of art made out of food,” Cohen reminisced. “And we ate it!”

Perhaps the current recession really has brought back the age-old figure of the starving artist, for the evening quickly devolved into a sort of freeloader’s paradise, with gallery-goers gorging themselves on Song’s victuals, until little remained on the shelves that once held these delicately arranged landscapes but a few stray stalks of broccoli — felled trees! — and the odd slice of bread.

As I exited onto 25th Street, a pack of sportily attired 20-somethings were making their way in, one of them announcing to the others gleefully, “Hey, I heard there are sandwiches here!” This particular group of collectors-come-lately would be disappointed, however. By Song’s standards, the show was sold out. 

Sarah Douglas is Senior Correspondent for ARTINFO, Art+Auction, and Modern Painters.