Sweet 'n Low 1990

Ralph Goings painted “Sweet ‘n Low” in an unknown year with oil on canvas, like a snapshot of a diner table. I love how he's turned something so everyday into a painting. The surface is so smooth, you can hardly see the brushstrokes, which gives it a cool, detached feeling. And the colors! That bright red tabletop against the steel and glass. It feels so American. Look at the way the light catches on the salt and pepper shakers. They're so real, you could almost reach out and grab one. There’s something melancholic about those empty sugar packets too; like the end of a meal, the end of a day. It reminds me of Edward Hopper, his use of light to create a sense of loneliness and longing. With photorealism you get all the everyday things, but the lack of brushstrokes is very strange. It’s a conversation about realism, about what it means to see and to paint, one that continues to evolve.