Philip Guston
- Introduction
- Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein (June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980), was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. Early in his five decade career, muralist David Siquieros described him as one of "the most promising painters in either the US or Mexico," in reference to his antifascist fresco The Struggle Against Terror, which "includes the hooded figures that became a lifelong symbol of bigotry for the artist." "Guston worked in a number of artistic modes, from Renaissance-inspired figuration to formally accomplished abstraction," and is now regarded one of the "most important, powerful, and influential American painters of the last 100 years." He also 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.A founding figure in the mid-century New York School movement, which established New York as the new center of the global art world, Guston's 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 helped 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, 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.” 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 "until 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.The announcement spurred an open letter, published online by the Brooklyn Rail, and signed by more than 2,000 artists. 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's why the exhibition must proceed without delay. On October 28, 2020, the museums announced earlier exhibition dates starting in 2022.
- Wikidata
- Q701952
- Introduction
- He attended the Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles 1927-1928, followed by the Otis Art Institute, 1930. He was expelled from Otis after three months, but it was there that he began his friendship with Jackson Pollock. From this period on Guston was self-taught. After a figurative period, in the manner of Mexican mural artists, Guston became involved in the development of American Abstract Expressionism. In 1968 he made a radical return to figuration, waiting until 1970 to reveal this work publicly. These new cartoon-like works were not well-received when first shown, but have become highly regarded over time.
- Nationalities
- American, Canadian
- Gender
- Male
- Roles
- Artist, Engraver, Lithographer, Muralist, Painter
- Names
- Philip Guston, Phillip Goldstein
- Ulan
- 500023901
Exhibitions
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Artist’s Choice: Amy Sillman—The Shape of Shape
Oct 21, 2019–Oct 4, 2020
MoMA
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402: In and Around Harlem
Ongoing
MoMA
Collection gallery
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420: War Within, War Without
Through fall 2021
MoMA
Collection gallery
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407: Frank O’Hara, Lunchtime Poet
Through summer 2021
MoMA
Collection gallery
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The Long Run
Nov 11, 2017–May 5, 2019
MoMA
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Philip Guston has
53 exhibitionsonline.
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Philip Guston Gladiators 1940
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Philip Guston Study for "Tormentors" 1947
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Philip Guston Ischia 1949
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Philip Guston Red Painting 1950
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Philip Guston Loft I 1950
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Philip Guston Untitled 1951
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Philip Guston Drawing 1953
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Philip Guston Painting 1954
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Philip Guston The Clock 1956-57
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Philip Guston Head—Double View 1958
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Philip Guston Last Piece 1958
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Philip Guston Pleasures 1961
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Philip Guston North 1961-62
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Philip Guston Untitled 1963
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Philip Guston Untitled 1963
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Philip Guston Untitled 1963
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Philip Guston Untitled 1963
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Philip Guston Inhabiter 1965
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Philip Guston The Stone 1965
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Philip Guston August 1965 from Four on Plexiglas 1965, published 1966
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Philip Guston Untitled 1966
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Philip Guston Nice 1966
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Philip Guston Open Washes 1966
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Various Artists, Nell Blaine, Norman Bluhm, Joe Brainard, John Button, Giorgio Cavallon, Allan D'Arcangelo, Helen Frankenthaler, Jane Freilicher, Michael Goldberg, Philip Guston, Grace Hartigan, Al Held, Jasper Johns, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Alex Katz, Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Alfred Leslie, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol (Marisol Escobar), Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Reuben Nakian, Barnett Newman, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jane Wilson Preparatory drawings for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Unused preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Unused preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Unused preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Unused preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Unused preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Unused preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Unused preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Unused preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Unused preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Unused preparatory drawing for In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Nell Blaine, Norman Bluhm, Joe Brainard, John Button, Giorgio Cavallon, Allan D'Arcangelo, Elaine de Kooning, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Jane Freilicher, Michael Goldberg, Philip Guston, Grace Hartigan, Al Held, Jasper Johns, Alex Katz, Matsumi Kanemitsu, Lee Krasner, Alfred Leslie, Roy Lichtenstein, Marisol (Marisol Escobar), Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Reuben Nakian, Barnett Newman, Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, Jane Wilson, Niki de Saint Phalle, Various Artists In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston In-text plate (folio 66 recto) from In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston In-text plate (folio 68 recto) from In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston In-text plate (folio 70 recto) from In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston In-text plate (folios 71 verso and 72 recto) from In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston In-text plate (folio 73 verso) from In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Plate (folio 76 recto) from In Memory of My Feelings 1967
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Philip Guston Haven 1967
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