Guston, Philip

Philip Guston Works on Paper

Painter Philip Guston's return to figuration in the late 1960s was plotted and rehearsed in his drawing practice, in which he veered between what he referred to as "pure drawing" (abstract) and figurative drawing (a shoe, a chair, a nail, an open book, a hooded head). As he groped his way into this strange and clunky vocabulary, Guston discovered an incredible world awaiting him, and realized, as he put it, that "I wanted to tell stories!"
Guston's drawing was also a vehicle for collaboration--with poets such as Clark Coolidge and Bill Berkson--and for satire--the Poor Richard series. His draftsmanship betrays such early influences as the cartoons of Frink and George Herriman, perhaps instances of the "impure" art that flooded back into his practice after he abandoned abstraction. With a selection of about 100 drawings, mostly from the artist's estate, Philip Guston: Works on Paper tracks the evolution of this major American artist's drawing from the 1940s to 1980.

Philip Guston: Retrospective

"The single best introduction to a tremendous force in American painting."—Chicago Tribune

Philip Guston (1913-1980) had been a successful abstract painter for almost two decades when he boldly returned to figurative work in the late 1960s. His uncompromising late paintings, which broke taboos, baffled his admirers, and shocked the art establishment, ultimately inspired succeeding generations of artists, invigorating painting with a new sense of mission.

This book, the most comprehensive survey of Guston's art to date, was originally published on the occasion of a major international exhibition. It brings together for the first time the different bodies of the artist's work, exposing the connective threads between each of his developmental stages. In-depth essays by a noted group of critics and art historians explore Guston's early influences and the emergence of symbols that resurfaced and played prominent roles in his late work. They provide insight into Guston's philosophy regarding abstraction, his role within its development, and the social and art historical context from which his so-called "Klan" paintings emerged. 197 illustrations, 158 in color.

Night Studio: A Memoir Of Philip Guston

Philip Guston (Modern Masters Series, Vol. 11)

Guston in Time: Remembering Philip Guston

Novelist Ross Feld remembers his friend, the acclaimed artist Philip Guston, in a beautiful blend of memoir, biography and art criticism interspersed with extracts from Guston's vibrant letters.

Painters have needed writers from the time of Vasari. By words visual imagery is given a second vividness, and writers recast it into a descriptiveness that's infinitely portable. The figurative painter Philip Guston found such an interpreter of his art in his friend, novelist Ross Feld. Guston in Time is Feld's final appreciation of Guston and his work. Both a complex study of one of the twentieth century's greatest artists and a testament to a wonderful friendship, it is ultimately a tribute to a great character. Philip Guston lives and breathes in this book. The excerpts from his letters are brash and brilliant, and Feld's fantastic images of the man are a mosaic of his grandiosity of spirit. As Feld writes, "he was like a Zero Mostel, a supernova of personality," and here Feld has created an unforgettable portrait of a man and his art, crafted with love and genius.

Philip Guston's life was, in many ways, a chronicle of twentieth century American painting. He was a muralist with the Federal Art Project in the 1930s, an abstract expressionist in the fifties and sixties, and in the last and most important decade of his life, Guston's work changed yet again. His late, figurative work--crude, bold and beautifully painted--enraged the art establishment, but helped embolden a younger generation of artists to risk a new style of painting that became known as Neo-Expressionism. He died in 1980.

A Critical Study of Philip Guston

Dore Ashton has updated the bibliography and added a new concluding chapter to her classic study of the paintings and drawings of Philip Guston, the only study of his work completely authorized by the artist.
Philip Guston (1913-1980) was one of the most independent of the painters whose work was loosely linked by the term "abstract expressionism" during the 1950s, and he baffled admirers of his lushly beautiful abstract expressionist paintings by moving abruptly in mid-career to gritty figurative paintings in an almost cartoon-like style. One of the few critics who saw this at the time as a progressive development in his work was Dore Ashton, who here analyzes Guston's paintings and drawings in the context of the cultural milieu in which he worked, illuminating the dilemma facing artists who try to live with, understand, and express both the ideals of art and the reality of the world.

Telling tales.(Painter Philip Guston's career examined)(Critical Essay)(Biography): An article from: Artforum International

This digital document is an article from Artforum International, published by Artforum International Magazine, Inc. on May 1, 2003. The length of the article is 3877 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Telling tales.(Painter Philip Guston's career examined)(Critical Essay)(Biography)
Author: David Anfam
Publication: Artforum International (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2003
Publisher: Artforum International Magazine, Inc.
Volume: 41 Issue: 9 Page: 132(10)

Article Type: Critical Essay, Biography

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Drawings of Philip Guston

Philip Guston, 1980 / The Last Works

Six Painters: Mondrian, De Kooning, Guston, Kline, Pollock and Rothko