Objects on a Table: Harmonious Disarray in Art and Literature

Whatever reason guides our quest for information to discover small treasures, the rewards of finding writing as quiet and yet celebratory as Guy Davenport's OBJECTS ON A TABLE are immeasurable. This small volume of four essays on the intransigence of Still Life paintings and their concommitant relationship to music, philosophy, literature, history, poetry, and simply Life is satisfying on every level. While the art world strains to design the NEW trends/schools/movements that will incite or induce controversy and a step toward the now ubiquitous Warhol 15 minutes of fame, writers and lecturers such as Davenport (and Mark Doty, Norbert Schneider, et al) offer solace in the simplicity of beckoning quietly toward the centuries old yet very much extant art of the painted Still Life. Meditations on the significance of baskets of fruit, on 'memento mori', on non-visual artists who attempt to capture the simplicity inherent in the Still Life spill over the pages of this beautiful little book, and in doing so enhance our vision of the world about us. The writing here is superb, the pleasures of pausing to read solitarily the thoughts of a writer so well informed about so many issues makes this small volume a fine addition to the thinkers' librairies. Beautiful!

This author is extremely atuned to the historical and literary 'trade routes' by which ideas and techniques are conveyed to our time. If you haven't read his "Geography of the Imagination", you have a treat in store. There are at least two sides to Guy Davenport: one is his 'own work' which consists of stories in a completely unique genre, and the other is his 'detective work' or book worm mode which yield astounding ties from one writer to another, or from painter to writer, or culture to culture. This is a work to treasure.