—and now the gallery is closing but he cannot leave because he still doesn’t see the Arabesque, so he stays to stare at the white drip of dental floss congealing into lard dwindling back into dental floss as he follows it loop-de-looping over the brown and over the black and over the gray drip which is loop-de-looping over the brown and the black drip which is loop-de-looping over the brown, and he still doesn’t see the Arabesque so he steps back and stares at the whole thing and sees for the first time how long it is and how much it is, how he still cannot see the whole thing when his back is to the eggshell wall opposite of the eggshell wall where it hangs and where he still doesn’t see the Arabesque, so he steps close to stare at the center and is still, and in his periphery drips in perfect rhythm drip in perfect patterns and he almost sees the Arabesque but he looks and still sees still paint still pointless, and he will leave the museum still looking for the Arabesque and on his drive home as he sees the white and the gray and the black loop-de-looping in his periphery he will wonder how a painting so large could ever be so small, and now the gallery is closing but he cannot leave because he still doesn’t see the Arabesque—
Jackson Pollock, Number 13A: Arabesque, 1948
Oil and enamel on canvas. 1995.32.1
