GUNSHIP LANDS; TROOPERS SAY YES TO THE MISSION BEFORE ANYONE TELLS THEM WHAT IT IS

The Gallery has borrowed Gunship Landing from the Sketchbook: a Republic gunship setting down on a dusty battlefield as a wave of clone troopers charges out, blasters up, toward whatever is waiting for them.

Most weeks it would hang as a war painting. This week, beside a front page about a man who accepted an invitation to a "very formal event" and learned on arrival that he was the evening's entertainment, curators have rehung it as a study of the RSVP. "Look at them," said a docent. "Nobody is asking where they're going. They heard yes and they ran." Chet Kode of the Nerd Panel noted that the troopers were literally bred for it: "Good soldiers follow orders. Great guests read the invitation."

Society columnist May Kupp, invited to review the piece, praised the armour ("definitely good shoes") and asked whether anyone had been told the dress code. Anne Chantid called the composition "a gala, seen from the landing pad."

The Gallery does not consider the troopers foolish. "They showed up," said a docent. "Sometimes you find out you're the show. Sometimes it's a wonderful night. The painting doesn't tell you which. It just tells you they went."