Philip Guston
Encyclopedia
Philip Guston was a notable painter and printmaker in the New York School
, which included many of the Abstract expressionists
, such as Jackson Pollock
and Willem De Kooning
. In the late 1960s Guston helped to lead a transition from Abstract expressionism
to Neo-expressionism
in painting, abandoning the so-called "pure abstraction" of abstract expressionism
in favor of more cartoonish renderings of various personal symbols and objects.
as a child. Guston's Ukrainian-Jewish parents escaped persecution when they moved from Odessa, Ukraine. Guston and his family were aware of the regular Klan activities against Jews, blacks and others which took place across California
during Guston's childhood. When Guston was 10 or 11, his father hanged himself in the shed, and the young Guston found the body. Guston began painting at the age of 14, and in 1927 he enrolled in the Los Angeles Manual Arts High School, where both he and Jackson Pollock
studied under Frederick John de St. Vrain Schwankovsky and were introduced to Modern European art
, oriental philosophy, theosophy
and mystic
literature. This early work was figurative
and representational, and though his parents did support his artistic inclinations, he often made drawings in his closet, lit by a hanging bulb. Apart from his high school education and a one-year scholarship at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, Guston remained a largely self-taught artist. During high school, Guston and Jackson Pollock published a paper opposing the high school's emphasis on sports over art. Their criticism led to both being expelled, but Pollock returned and graduated. At Otis on scholarship, Guston felt unfulfilled by the academic approach which limited him to drawing from plaster casts instead of the live model. Before dropping out of Otis, Guston spent a night in the studio making drawings of these figurative plasters scattered all over the studio floor.
. This mural was defaced by local police officers, which impacted Guston's political and social outlook. Guston, as Philip Goldstein, along with Reuben Kadish
, completed a significant mural in 1935 at City of Hope
, at the time a tuberculosis hospital located in Duarte, California
, that remains to this day.
In 1936 Guston moved to New York
where he worked as an artist in the WPA
program. During this period his work included strong references to Renaissance
painters such as Paolo Uccello
, Masaccio
, Piero della Francesca
, and Giotto. He was also influenced by American Regionalist
s and Mexican mural painters
. In 1938 inspired by his success with Kadish he joined the poet and friend Jules Langsner in a trip to Mexico where they were given a 1000 square feet (92.9 m²) wall in the former summer palace of the Emperor Maximilian in the state capital of Morelia, where they produced the impressive The Struggle Against Terror, an antifascist mural clearly influenced by the work of Siqueiros. A two-page review in Time magazine quoted Siqueiros describing them as ‘the most promising painters in either the US or Mexico’. While in Mexico he also met and spent time with Frieda Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera.
A powerful and enduring influence, whom Guston was to acknowledge throughout his career, was Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico
. Musa Mayer, Guston's daughter, recalled in her book Night Studio: A memoir of Philip Guston how the artist kept a De Chirico monograph in his studio, to which he would often refer.
at the State University of Iowa (today the University of Iowa
) from 1941 to 1945. There he completed a mural for the Social Security Building in Washington, D.C., turned to easel painting, and had his first solo exhibition in 1944. After this he was artist-in-residence at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri until 1947. He continued to teach at New York University and at the Pratt Institute. From 1973 to 1978 he conducted a once-monthly graduate seminar at Boston University. Guston's students include two graduates of the State University of Iowa, painters Stephen Greene (1917–1999) and Fridtjof Schroder (1917–1990) and Ken Kerslake
(1930–2007), who attended Pratt Institute. Those who attended his graduate seminars at Boston University include painter Gary Komarin (1951-) and new media artist Christina McPhee
(1954-).
or the late Nymphea canvases by Monet. Guston used a relatively limited palette favoring whites, blacks, greys and reds in these works. This palette remains evident in his later work.
and began painting representationally again, but in a rather cartoon
ish manner. The first exhibition of these new figurative paintings was held in 1970 at the Marlborough Gallery in New York. It received scathing reviews from most of the art establishment (notably from the New York Times art critic
Hilton Kramer
who, in an article entitled "A Mandarin pretending to be a Stumblebum" ridiculed Guston's new style). One of the few who instantly understood the importance of those paintings was the painter Willem de Kooning
who, at the time, said to Guston that they were "about freedom" (cited in Musa Mayer's biography of her father, Night Studio). As a result of the poor reception of his new figurative paintings, Guston left New York City and settled in Woodstock, far from the art world which had so utterly misunderstood his art (see the initial reaction of Robert Hughes, critic for Time Magazine, who later was to change his views, in a scathing review entitled "Ku Klux Komix", and Hilton Kramer's NY Times review). His contract with the Marlborough gallery was not renewed and, after a short period without any dealer, he joined the recently opened David McKee Gallery (he had known McKee at Marlborough) to which he would remain faithful until the end of his life. When criticized widely about the impurity of these later paintings, he responded, "There is something ridiculous and miserly in the myth we inherit from abstract art
. That painting is autonomous, pure and for itself, therefore we habitually analyze its ingredients and define its limits. But painting is 'impure'. It is the adjustment of 'impurities' which forces its continuity. We are image-makers and image-ridden." In this body of work he created a lexicon of images such as Klansmen
, lightbulbs, shoes, cigarettes, and clocks. In late 2009, the McKee gallery in NYC, Guston's historic dealer, mounted a show revealing that lexicon in 49 small oils on panel painted between 1969 and 1972 that had never been publicly displayed as a whole. Guston is best known for these late existential
and lugubrious paintings, which at the time of his death had reached a wide audience, and found great popular acceptance. Guston died in 1980 in Woodstock, New York
.
New York School
The New York School was an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers, and musicians active in the 1950s, 1960s in New York City...
, which included many of the Abstract expressionists
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
, such as Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
and Willem De Kooning
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
. In the late 1960s Guston helped to lead a transition from Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
to Neo-expressionism
Neo-expressionism
Neo-expressionism is a style of modern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s and dominated the art market until the mid-1980s...
in painting, abandoning the so-called "pure abstraction" of abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
in favor of more cartoonish renderings of various personal symbols and objects.
Childhood and education
Phillip Guston was born in 1913 in Montreal, Canada, Guston moved with his family to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
as a child. Guston's Ukrainian-Jewish parents escaped persecution when they moved from Odessa, Ukraine. Guston and his family were aware of the regular Klan activities against Jews, blacks and others which took place across California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
during Guston's childhood. When Guston was 10 or 11, his father hanged himself in the shed, and the young Guston found the body. Guston began painting at the age of 14, and in 1927 he enrolled in the Los Angeles Manual Arts High School, where both he and Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
studied under Frederick John de St. Vrain Schwankovsky and were introduced to Modern European art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
, oriental philosophy, theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
and mystic
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
literature. This early work was figurative
Figurative art
Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational.-Definition:...
and representational, and though his parents did support his artistic inclinations, he often made drawings in his closet, lit by a hanging bulb. Apart from his high school education and a one-year scholarship at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, Guston remained a largely self-taught artist. During high school, Guston and Jackson Pollock published a paper opposing the high school's emphasis on sports over art. Their criticism led to both being expelled, but Pollock returned and graduated. At Otis on scholarship, Guston felt unfulfilled by the academic approach which limited him to drawing from plaster casts instead of the live model. Before dropping out of Otis, Guston spent a night in the studio making drawings of these figurative plasters scattered all over the studio floor.
Early career and influences
As an 18-year-old, politically aware painter, Guston made an indoor mural in L.A. depicting the Scottsboro BoysScottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenage boys accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial...
. This mural was defaced by local police officers, which impacted Guston's political and social outlook. Guston, as Philip Goldstein, along with Reuben Kadish
Reuben Kadish
Reuben Kadish was an American artist, specializing as a sculptor, draughtsman, muralist, painter, and printmaker. In his later career he also taught art history and sculpture in New York.-Early life:...
, completed a significant mural in 1935 at City of Hope
City of Hope National Medical Center
City of Hope National Medical Center, is a private, not-for-profit clinical research center, hospital and graduate medical school located in Duarte, California, United States...
, at the time a tuberculosis hospital located in Duarte, California
Duarte, California
Duarte is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 21,321, down from 21,486 at the 2000 census....
, that remains to this day.
In 1936 Guston moved to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
where he worked as an artist in the WPA
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
program. During this period his work included strong references to Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
painters such as Paolo Uccello
Paolo Uccello
Paolo Uccello , born Paolo di Dono, was an Italian painter and a mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art. Giorgio Vasari in his book Lives of the Artists wrote that Uccello was obsessed by his interest in perspective and would stay up all night in his...
, Masaccio
Masaccio
Masaccio , born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation because of his skill at recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense...
, Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca
Piero della Francesca was a painter of the Early Renaissance. As testified by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Artists, to contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting was characterized by its...
, and Giotto. He was also influenced by American Regionalist
American scene painting
American scene painting refers to a naturalist style of painting and other works of art of the 1920s through the 1950s in the United States. American scene painting is also known as Regionalism....
s and Mexican mural painters
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
. In 1938 inspired by his success with Kadish he joined the poet and friend Jules Langsner in a trip to Mexico where they were given a 1000 square feet (92.9 m²) wall in the former summer palace of the Emperor Maximilian in the state capital of Morelia, where they produced the impressive The Struggle Against Terror, an antifascist mural clearly influenced by the work of Siqueiros. A two-page review in Time magazine quoted Siqueiros describing them as ‘the most promising painters in either the US or Mexico’. While in Mexico he also met and spent time with Frieda Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera.
A powerful and enduring influence, whom Guston was to acknowledge throughout his career, was Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico was a pre-Surrealist and then Surrealist Italian painter born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father. He founded the scuola metafisica art movement...
. Musa Mayer, Guston's daughter, recalled in her book Night Studio: A memoir of Philip Guston how the artist kept a De Chirico monograph in his studio, to which he would often refer.
Teaching
Guston's first foray into teaching was as an artist-in-residence at the School of Art and Art HistoryUniversity of Iowa School of Art and Art History
The University of Iowa School of Art and Art History is a school of the University of Iowa located in Iowa City, IA which awards undergraduate and graduate degrees in Art and Art history...
at the State University of Iowa (today the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
) from 1941 to 1945. There he completed a mural for the Social Security Building in Washington, D.C., turned to easel painting, and had his first solo exhibition in 1944. After this he was artist-in-residence at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri until 1947. He continued to teach at New York University and at the Pratt Institute. From 1973 to 1978 he conducted a once-monthly graduate seminar at Boston University. Guston's students include two graduates of the State University of Iowa, painters Stephen Greene (1917–1999) and Fridtjof Schroder (1917–1990) and Ken Kerslake
Ken Kerslake
Fine artist Ken Kerslake was, according to Dr. Tom Dewey of the University of Mississippi,"one of a handful of printmaker-educators responsible for the growth of printmaking in the southeast in the years following World War II." Kerslake's teaching career was spent at the University of Florida in...
(1930–2007), who attended Pratt Institute. Those who attended his graduate seminars at Boston University include painter Gary Komarin (1951-) and new media artist Christina McPhee
Christina McPhee
Christina McPhee is an American painter, new media and video artist. She currently lives on California's central coast and San Francisco, CA.-Art:...
(1954-).
Abstract expressionism
In the 1950s, Guston achieved success and renown as a first-generation Abstract Expressionist. During this period his paintings often consisted of blocks and masses of gestural strokes and marks of color floating within the picture plane. These works, with marks often grouped toward the center of the compositions, recall the "plus and minus" compositions by Piet MondrianPiet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian , was a Dutch painter.He was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which was founded by Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism...
or the late Nymphea canvases by Monet. Guston used a relatively limited palette favoring whites, blacks, greys and reds in these works. This palette remains evident in his later work.
Return to representational art
In the late 1960s, Guston became frustrated with abstractionAbstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
and began painting representationally again, but in a rather cartoon
Cartoon
A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
ish manner. The first exhibition of these new figurative paintings was held in 1970 at the Marlborough Gallery in New York. It received scathing reviews from most of the art establishment (notably from the New York Times art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
Hilton Kramer
Hilton Kramer
Hilton Kramer is a U.S. art critic and cultural commentator.Kramer was educated at Syracuse University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Indiana University and the New School for Social Research. He worked as the editor of Arts Magazine, art critic for The Nation, and from 1965 to 1982,...
who, in an article entitled "A Mandarin pretending to be a Stumblebum" ridiculed Guston's new style). One of the few who instantly understood the importance of those paintings was the painter Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
who, at the time, said to Guston that they were "about freedom" (cited in Musa Mayer's biography of her father, Night Studio). As a result of the poor reception of his new figurative paintings, Guston left New York City and settled in Woodstock, far from the art world which had so utterly misunderstood his art (see the initial reaction of Robert Hughes, critic for Time Magazine, who later was to change his views, in a scathing review entitled "Ku Klux Komix", and Hilton Kramer's NY Times review). His contract with the Marlborough gallery was not renewed and, after a short period without any dealer, he joined the recently opened David McKee Gallery (he had known McKee at Marlborough) to which he would remain faithful until the end of his life. When criticized widely about the impurity of these later paintings, he responded, "There is something ridiculous and miserly in the myth we inherit from abstract art
Abstract art
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...
. That painting is autonomous, pure and for itself, therefore we habitually analyze its ingredients and define its limits. But painting is 'impure'. It is the adjustment of 'impurities' which forces its continuity. We are image-makers and image-ridden." In this body of work he created a lexicon of images such as Klansmen
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
, lightbulbs, shoes, cigarettes, and clocks. In late 2009, the McKee gallery in NYC, Guston's historic dealer, mounted a show revealing that lexicon in 49 small oils on panel painted between 1969 and 1972 that had never been publicly displayed as a whole. Guston is best known for these late existential
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
and lugubrious paintings, which at the time of his death had reached a wide audience, and found great popular acceptance. Guston died in 1980 in Woodstock, New York
Woodstock, New York
Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 5,884 at the 2010 census, down from 6,241 at the 2000 census.The Town of Woodstock is in the northern part of the county...
.
Further reading
- Auping, Michael. Philip Guston: Retrospective (Thames & Hudson, 2006) ISBN 0-500-28422-9
- Bucklow, Christopher. What is in the Dwat. The Universe of Guston's Final Decade (The Wordsworth Trust, 2007) ISBN 978 1 905256 21 1
- Coolidge, ClarkClark CoolidgeClark Coolidge is an American poet born in Providence, Rhode Island.Often associated with the Language School, his experience as a Jazz drummer and interest in a wide array of subjects--- including caves, geology, bebop, weather, Salvador Dalí, Jack Kerouac, and movies--- often finds...
. Baffling Means: Writings/Drawings (Stockbridge, MA: O-blek Editions, 1991). - Corbett, William. Philip Guston’s Late Work: A Memoir (Cambridge, MA: Zoland Books, 1994)
- Feld, Ross. Guston In Time: Remembering Philip Guston (Counterpoint Press, 2003) ISBN 1-58243-284-8
- Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston by his (originally published: New York: Knopf, 1988; new edition: Da Capo Press, 1997) ISBN 0-306-80767-X
- Marika Herskovic, New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, 2000.) ISBN 0967799406. p. 18; p. 37; p. 170-173
- Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0967799414. p. 150-153
- Marika Herskovic, American Abstract and Figurative Expressionism Style Is Timely Art Is Timeless An Illustrated Survey With Artists' Statements, Artwork and Biographies. (New York School Press, 2009.) ISBN 9780967799421. p. 112-115; p. 136
- Dore Ashton, A Critical History of Philip Guston, 1976
- Yale University Art Gallery, Joanna Weber and Harry Cooper "Philip Guston, a New Alphabet, the late transition", 2000, ISBN 0-89467-085-9
- Robert Storr, "Guston", Abbeville Press, Modern Masters, ISBN 0-89659-665-6, 1986
- David Kaufmann, "Telling Stories: Philip Guston's Later Works" (University of California Press, 2010) ISBN 978-0520265769
- Peter Benson Miller, ed. "Philip Guston, Roma," ex. cat. with texts by Peter Benson Miller, Dore Ashton, Musa McKim and Michael Semff (Hatje Cantz, 2010) ISBN 978-3-7757-2632-0
- Michael Semff, 'An Unknown Lithograph from Philip Guston's Late Work,' Print Quarterly, XXVIII, 2011, 462-64
External links
- Philip Guston artwork at Brooke Alexander Gallery
- Works by Philip Guston at the Museum of Modern ArtMuseum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York - Biography of Philip Guston by Christopher Brookeman, Grove Art Online, 2007 Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
- Philip Guston at McKee Gallery at McKee Gallery, New York