Last weekend a colleague from the Met came to the gallery and we spent some time looking together at each of the Tabletop drawings in Jennifer Viola’s series. There are seven drawings, one made for every day of the week. The series begins with Monday-the most orderly day-when the bills are paid and on the table next to a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. On Tuesday things quickly start to unravel. Chance and change interfere. By the end of the week there’s a tendency to escape and the drawings are a mix of the comic and tragic forces in our life. At times we’d step up close to puzzle over the cigarette buts sticking out under her toes or to read the letters of her name printed on a skirt. For the most part we stood back, pausing to consider the tone and meaning of each work. It was a pleasure to focus on a few works and talk, laugh, or smile at what we saw. And it’s a reminder to me of what this gallery stands for: taking your time and spending time with others to look at a work of art.
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