Putting art on the table: Suzanne and Norman Cohn's passion for commissioning contemporary crafts has led to their creatively staged dinner parties, where guests enjoy not only exquisite food but also elaborate 'table art'. Louise Nicholson was invited to join them for an evening

Apollo, March, 2008 by Louise Nicholson

Suzanne Cohn laid down a firm condition for talking about the table art that she and her husband, Norman, collect: 'You must experience it first. Our primary concern is the ongoing relationship with the artists and their table art. It is about how we put things together, how we use different artists' work as an ensemble. It's only when you touch your lips on a glass or fork that you fully experience the object. Our collection is not about our storage room'.

Thus it was that on a chilly January evening I was among some 30 people who gathered in the Cohns' home, near Philadelphia, designed by Zantzinger, Trumbauer and Borie in 1912. We were there to experience one of their celebrated dinners, which would pair crafts pieces, the majority commissioned by the Cohns, with food prepared by their resident chef, Tony Clark. During cocktails--dubbed 'Viewing the Crafts'--the seven hors d'oeuvres included Xian dumplings served on a tray created by Sandra Brush, skewers by Robert Farrell and hirame tartare prepared for each guest on Jeff Goodman's table, using spoons, rests and vessels by seven different craftsmen. For the final hors d'oeuvre, the craftsmen, collectors and other guests strolled upstairs past a spectacular, back-lit, site-specific glass installation by Dale Chihuly, then along a passage full of ceramics and glass sculptures to the designated room where a white bean soup was ladled from Wendy and John Gilvey's tureen (Fig. 4).

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Back downstairs in the dining room, the full extent, variety and quality of the collection became apparent. Here, Mr and Mrs Cohn had created five tables glittering with glass, metalwork and ceramics, each themed to 'a different sensibility', as Mrs Cohn put it. Modesto and Alejandro Salazar's brown and terracotta centrepiece set a tone of cool calmness at one, emphasised by Lucatha Kohler's wine goblets and Ron Dekok's service plates. At another, Densaburo Oku's witty, upbeat fish skeleton centrepiece (Fig. 5) with Ginny Ruffner's glass balls were complemented by piscatorial references in the plates, glassware and cutlery. Courses were punctuated by Mrs Cohn standing to introduce the next table settings, which changed with each course, and by the artists themselves--including Peter Saenger, Robyn Nichols and Ron Dekok--who talked about working with the Cohns. Aided by a 16-page illustrated menu (Fig. 3), guests at the table with Stephen Dee Edwards's centrepiece could discover that Peter Saenger made the plate and Holly Churchill the flatware for the sixth course, truffled squab with foie gras. After that came dessert: eight-inch-high, mouth-blown sugar craftsmen created by Tony Clark (Fig. 2), enjoyed with sorbet and a Madeira wine almost as old as America's constitution, sipped from goblets by Lucio Bubacco and others. In all, well over 1,000 pieces were used that night, the majority by American artists.

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The condition satisfied, next morning the Cohns talked about their involvement with contemporary table art, or, as Mrs Cohn puts it, 'the passion that drives our lives, a madness bordering on insanity. And not without guilt.'

'I'd say it began some 40 years ago', remembers Mr Cohn. 'Love of food and table settings give us the opportunity to share with friends.' His wife daborates: 'The two work together. In the early years, as we started to experience different cultures, our eye led us to vessels. In Asia we saw objects chiselled out of earthy materials and thought they would make a lovely bowl or plate, would keep the memory.' Raised in a small town in Iowa, Mr Cohn started his business-to-business information and communications career, including publishing trade magazines and running trade shows, at college. 'I got lucky; I wake up happy', he says modestly of the success that enables him and his wife to enjoy acquiring and using art every day.

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'I still do not feel we are collectors. We use the pieces for breakfast every day; they are part of our lives', Mrs Cohn says, as if stating the obvious, which her husband qualifies: 'We decided early on we didn't want to live in a museum. Things get broken, but that's part of it. You have to touch it, hold it, put it to your lips. So we never open the house to tours.' But their 10 grandchildren often visit and run around the treasure-filled house, so far without a disaster.

The collection is a joint project. 'Very little do we have that Suzanne and I have not collected together,' Mr Cohn says. 'But about 10 years ago I did find one artist and commissioned her to make plates. Suzanne was hesitant because the artist did wall art. I had to convince her this would be a use of her beautiful talent.' The artist was Coral Dalton, the plates creamy white bisque with fish incorporated into them; we had eaten smoked Chinook salmon off them the previous night. Mrs Cohn takes up the story. 'I was delighted, ecstatic. I was surprised he'd pulled this one off', she laughs. 'He tends to like things a little more elaborate. My way is to pare that down. Those plates are so organic, the flow of the fish and plate so harmonious, so successful. They are one of my favourites to incorporate into table settings.'