Philip Guston

Philip Guston
Profile of the artist
Guston in 1940
Born
Phillip Goldstein

(1913-06-27)June 27, 1913
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
DiedJune 7, 1980(1980-06-07) (aged 66)
Woodstock, New York, US
NationalityAmerican
EducationLos Angeles Manual Arts High School, Otis Art Institute
Known forPainter, graphic artist, muralist, printmaker
StyleCartoon, Abstract
MovementAbstract expressionism, Neoexpressionism, figurative painting, New York School
SpouseMusa McKim
Patron(s)David McKee
Signature (1969)

Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980) was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. "Guston worked in a number of artistic modes, from Renaissance-inspired figuration to formally accomplished abstraction,"[1] and is now regarded as one of the "most important, powerful, and influential American painters of the last 100 years."[2] He frequently depicted racism, antisemitism, fascism and American identity, as well as—especially in his later most cartoonish and mocking work—the banality of evil. In 2013, Guston's painting To Fellini set an auction record at Christie's when it sold for $25.8 million.[3]

Guston was a founding figure in the mid-century New York School, which established New York as the new center of the global art world, and his work appeared in the famed Ninth Street Show and in the avant-garde art journal It is. A Magazine for Abstract Art. By the 1960s, Guston had renounced abstract expressionism and was helping pioneer a modified form of representational art known as neo-expressionism. "Calling American abstract art 'a lie' and 'a sham,' he pivoted to making paintings in a dark, figurative style, including satirical drawings of Richard Nixon" during the Vietnam War as well as several paintings of hooded Klansmen,[4] which Guston explained this way: "They are self-portraits … I perceive myself as being behind the hood … The idea of evil fascinated me … I almost tried to imagine that I was living with the Klan."[5] The paintings of Klan figures were set to be part of an international retrospective sponsored by the National Gallery of Art, the Tate Modern, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2020, but in late September, the museums jointly postponed the exhibition until 2024, "a time at which we think that the powerful message of social and racial justice that is at the center of Philip Guston's work can be more clearly interpreted."[4][6]

The announcement spurred an open letter, published online by The Brooklyn Rail and signed by more than 2,000 artists.[7][8] It criticizes the postponement and the museums' lack of courage to display or attempt to interpret Guston's work, as well as the museums' own "history of prejudice". It calls Guston's KKK themes a timely catalyst for a "reckoning" with cultural and institutional white supremacy, and argues that that is why the exhibition must proceed without delay.[8] On October 28, 2020, the museums announced earlier exhibition dates starting in 2022.[9]

  1. ^ Greenberger, Alex (September 30, 2020). "Philip Guston's KKK Paintings: Why an Abstract Painter Returned to Figuration to Confront Racism". Artnews.
  2. ^ Saltz, Jerry (October 1, 2020). "4 Museums Decided This Work Shouldn't Be Shown. They're Both Right and Wrong. Fear postponed a Philip Guston retrospective. A reckoning must follow". New York Magazine.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Artobserved-2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b Jacobs, Julia and Jason Farago (September 25, 2020). "Delay of Philip Guston Retrospective Divides the Art World". New York Times.
  5. ^ "Sense or censorship? Row over Klan images in Tate's postponed show". the Guardian. September 27, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
  6. ^ "Philip Guston Now". www.nga.gov. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  7. ^ Schwendener, Martha (October 2, 2020). "Why Philip Guston Can Still Provoke Such Furor, and Passion". New York Times.
  8. ^ a b "Open Letter: On Philip Guston Now". Google Docs. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Artforum-2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).