Getting Arty at Your Halloween Party

Halloween is a great time to celebrate modern art and artists and throw an art-related theme party. Like click here for a Jackson Pollock Candied Apples recipe, and of course you can now legally serve absinthe and let the Vincent van Gogh or Toulouse-Lautrec-type hallucinations begin (consenting adults only), or just concoct a big bowl of tropical punch in honor of Paul Gaugin. Put out Chex Mix to celebrate the Cubists, and ladyfingers and tea sandwiches for the refined flair of Mary Cassatt and Lilla Cabot Perry. Make some surrealist Jello, and don’t forget a wheel of slowly softening Camembert like the cheese that influenced Dali to paint his famed melting-clock scene The Persistence of Memory. Include tureens of Warholian Campbell Soup with a Peter Blume vegetable platter alongside psychedelic Peter Max deviled eggs, then maybe Tres Leches cake and flan for dessert to commemorate Kahlo, Izquierdo, Rivera and Tamayo. And so on.

To keep things interesting, carve and/or paint Picasso-themed pumpkins, or have self-portrait sessions. Encourage Abstract Expressionist splattering and wildness on old bed sheets or tarps, or start up a round of pictorial Exquisite Corpse. For those who want to sit on the sidelines and away from tangible efforts, the classic Masterpiece board game is an option, along with Artist Only Twenty Questions. And then of course holding a candlelit séance is perfect for Halloween night, trying to lure in the spirits of your favorite artistic souls gone to the Great Beyond. But be advised that if there’s plenty to eat and drink and good creative surroundings, when the party’s over you might have trouble getting rid of any starving artists -- living or dead.