Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada

 

 

The painting below dates to 10 years before Guston broke with Abstract Expressionism.  It is dedicated to S.K. 

 

A green-sleeved man appears to be scratching his head while turned to a mirror in the lower left corner.

 

SK is Soren Kierkegaard, 1738-1864, Danish philosopher and initiator of existentialism.  The philosopher said  that looking into a mirror is a call to the daily discipline of self-knowledge; and that that takes a prior act of self-recognition.

 

The artist believed that “the thing is recognized only as it comes into existence.” 

 

 

Mirror to S.K., 1960, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Loan from the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023 

 

 

This statement and this image would seem to describe the evolution of a person’s conscience. 

 

Here is a single self-portrait of the artist-as-Klansman.

 

Below it is a double self-portrait of the artist-as-Klansman which the artist never intended to sell. 

 

The National Gallery, Washington DC said that the double self-portrait contains a ‘twist’:  that the artist himself is a Klansman.

 

 

 

The Painter, 1969

Philip Guston 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Private loan to the National Gallery, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

 

Philip Guston was born into a Jewish family which had fled Odessa (now the Ukraine) for Canada to escape pogrom. 

 

The family relocated to Los Angeles.

His father, without work and desperate, took his life when the artist was 9.  The artist’s brother was killed later in an accident. 

 

Guston grew up in hard circumstances.  He was well aware of the difficulty faced  from societal violence by poor populations and minorities.

 

 

 

The Studio, 1969, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980.  American born Canada. Promised to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY by the artist’s daughter, loaned to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

Self-taught in artistic technique, Guston had focused some of his early figurative work on the difficulty  for large sections of society of living, of making a living, of being free.

 

After a very successful career as an Abstract Expressionist in company  with his schoolfriend, Jackson Pollock (died 1956) whom he had followed to New York,

Philip Guston in 1970 abandoned Abstract Expressionism.

 

 

 

Head, 1968, synthetic polymer paint on panel. 

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American-Canadian.  MOMA, NY

 

 

The social and political context of this apostasy to the end of returning to story-telling using figuration should be recalled.

 

1960s and ’70s: The Klu Klux Klan was again resurgent;

 

September 1963:  four African-American girls were blown up during Sunday morning services in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL

 

1966: the Black Panthers were formed.

 

Cross burnings.  Massive intimidation in the face of widespread political and social movements for the civil rights of the groups whom the Klu Klux had targeted: American Blacks, homosexuals. 

 

Add to that women and the Jews who were always the target of the Klu Klux’s deluded representation of patriarchal Christian supremacy. 

The assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. 

The assassination of Malcolm X in 1965.

The assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968.

The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. 

 

Add to this the shock of the details of the conduct of the United States in the Vietnam War (fall of Saigon, April 1975 after 20 years of war).  Unknown number of  Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian dead believed to be as high as 3 million.  58,000+ American dead.

 

 

The import of Guston’s self-portraits-as-Klansman would seem to be questions that the artist had been posing to himself:

Whence evil? 

Is evil in me?

Have I contributed to this evil? Enabled it?

Am I passing by on the other side, my eyes fixed self-indulgently on my navel? 

What should I be doing?

 

Artist-as-Klansmen asks these questions.

These portraits are the depiction of the perplexing questions of the spiritual life.

 

 

Here is, in 1970, the artist-as-Klansman in a courtroom.

 

 

Courtroom, 1970, oil on canvas, as below

 

 

A black-robed judge has his arm and hand pointed in accusation at the artist-as-Klansman whose victim is stuffed into a trash can.  The clock ticks on.

 

The courtroom is the artist’s studio.  The red splashes on his gown are not blood but cadmium red, Guston’s favourite colour.

 

 

Courtroom, 1970, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Private collection loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC at an earlier exhibition

 

 

The search for answers moved the artist away from the practice of Abstract Expressionism whose charter called for the expression of the interior life, the emotions of the artist, without figuration or representation.

  

One day, Guston came to acknowledge this:

“I got sick and tired of all that purity. Wanted to tell stories. 

“American art is a lie, a sham, a cover-up for a poverty of spirit…It is an escape – from the true feelings we have – the ‘raw’ – the primitive feelings we have about the world – and us in it. 

In America.”

 

 

The artist did not make this change overnight; but slowly and with apprehension and even anguish.

 

 

The Sleeper II, 1959, oil on canvas. 

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Private collection loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC at an earlier exhibition

 

 

With staying awake in bed, worrying about the slow pace of change; and the fast pace of the the clock of his life;

the painted daubs of his profession at the bottom of the canvas.

 

 

 

Pittore, 1973, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Promised gift of the artist’s daughter to the Metropolitan Museum, NY

 

 

The abandonment of Abstract Expression was an act of moral and artistic courage.

 

Guston was acknowledging a spiritual truth: 

 

the evolution of the interior life may be essential for human maturity;

but it is a dead letter in the world until and unless it is translated into meaningful action in community with that real world.

 

Guston wanted to address the chaos and pain all around him.  He wanted to tell stories.

 

His apostasy brought him insults.  He was ostracized by those who had lauded and richly compensated him.

 

The artist said that the only thing one can learn, the only technique to learn, is the capacity to change.

 

 

 

Untitled (Self-Portrait), 1974, ink

Philip Guston, American born Canada. Promised gift from the artist’s daughter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY 

 

 

 

*********************

 

 

This was 25 years after the beginning of Abstract Expressionism.

 It does not follow, of course, from Philip Guston’s take after 20 years of his own fervent practice that Abstract Expressionism is nothing but a narcissism. 

 

Philip Guston’s apostasy came out of his early socialization, his lived experience and the evolution of his moral conscience.  

His alone.

 

 

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Guston created a comic, cartoonish, figurative style in shades of his favourite cadmium red for his story-telling.  He loved comic books since young.

 

He liked the description ‘clear enigma’ rather than ‘figurative’ because he wanted to present the real world as it is:  both solid and ambiguous; recognizable and strange. 

 

He filled the paintings with simply drawn objects whose relationships with each other and with the artist and with the world are fluid.

 

The painting immediately below is the last painting before he exhibited his new work in a fateful exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery, NY in 1970.

 

This exhibition marked his separation from Abstract Expressionism.

 

 

 

Flatlands, 1970, oil on canvas, as below

 

 

Guston inventoried the forms he intended to use in his new paintings.

 

He called the tableau ‘Flatlands’ as though he had, after 20 years of his heady, aesthetically delicious and ego-satisfying practice of Abstract Expressionism,

touched the  flat ground of ordinary life and ordinary objects.

 

 

Flatlands, 1970, oil on canvas

Philip Guston 1913-1980, American born Canada.  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art loan to the National Gallery, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

 

Painter’s Forms, 1972, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Private loan to the National Gallery, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

****************

 

1971

 

Philip Guston despised the policies and mendacity of Richard Nixon, president of the US, 1969-1974, his exact contemporary and co-Californian.

 

He created one painting and a large number of satirical drawings to express his irritation and dismay.

These were finally published – Poor Richard – in 2001.

 

 

 

San Clemente, 1975, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Glenstone Museum, Potomac, MD loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

Richard Nixon, ousted from power after the Watergate shenanigans, at his home in San Clemente, CA, angry and suffering from his phlebitis and other ailments.

 The sharpened pencils of a liar are in his pocket.

 

 

 

One drawing in Poor Richard

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  On display at the National Gallery, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

***********************

 

1968-72

 

“There is a forgotten place of beings and things,” Guston said “which I need to remember. 

“I want to see this place.

“I paint what I want to see.”

 

The artist went on to paint many ordinary objects in the world and also naked shapes.

 

 

 

 Untitled 1968, charcoal. Promised to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY by the artist’s daughter

Untitled 1968, charcoal.  Private loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC in 2023

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*************************

 

 

Musa McKim, the artist’s wife, 1908-1992.

 

 

Musa McKim (the artist’s wife), oil on canvas, 1942. Philip Guston, 1913-1940, American born Canada. Promised gift by their daughter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

Musa McKim Guston was her husband’s primary support through 43 years of marriage (1937-1980).

 

For this she abandoned her own career as poet and artist.  They have one daughter.

 

 She continued to live in their house in Woodstock, NY after his death in 1980.

 

 

 

Web, 1975, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  MOMA, NY loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

 

Source, 1976, oil on canvas. 

Philip Guston 1913-1980, American born Canada.  MOMA, NY

 

 

A portrait below of the late 1970s when her husband, shattered by a series of strokes which she suffered, became her primary care-giver.

 

 

 

Couple in Bed, 1977, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Loan from the Institute of Art of Chicago to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023 

 

 

 

Wharf, 1976, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Modern Art Museum of  Fort Worth to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

The Night, 1977, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Philadelphia Museum of Art

 

 

 

The Ladder, 1978, oil on canvas. 

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

The artist’s wife’s head as sun over the sea’s horizon.

 

 

***************

 

 

Philip Guston painted the same objects again and again.

 

Legs heaped together and entwined in mounds.  These have a reference to the genocide of Nazi death camps during WW2. 

They also refer to the cause of his older brother’s death:  his legs were crushed when his car rolled backwards. 

 

Shoes, likewise, refer to the Holocaust of WW2. 

 

Lids and the metal covers of garbage bins evoke conflict and violence when thrust forward like shields.

 

 

*********************

 

1969-1973

 

 

 

The City, 1969, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. The Guston Foundation loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

A view of buildings on the West Side Highway as Guston passed on his way to the New School where he taught for a while.

 

 

 

Open Window, 1969, oil on panel.

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Private collection loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

 

 

Cellar, 1970, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Private loan to the National Gallery in 2023

 

 

 

Tower, 1970, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Private loan to the National Gallery, Washington DC in 2023 

 

 

 

Painting, Smoking, Eating, 1973, oil on canvas.

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Loaned to the National Gallery, Washington, DC in 2023 by Collection Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

 

 

 

Stationary Figure, oil on canvas, 1973. 

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Metropolitan Museum, NY

 

 

 

Painter’s Table, 1973, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

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Philip Guston  painted the Klu Klux Klan during three periods of his life: in the 1930s, the 1940s and again in the late 1960s. 

 

He had a long memory of them:  he was 16 when the Klan came to the factory  in which he was working to break up a strike. 

In 1933, the Klan vandalized a mural he had painted in Los Angeles under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration.

 

The Klan was evil incarnate to the artist.  He said that evil fascinated him.

 

 

 

By the Window, 1969, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American-Canadian.  Private loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

Edge of Town, 1969, oil on canvas.

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American-Canadian.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

Blackboard, oil on canvas, 1969

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Private collection loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

 

Head II, 1969, charcoal on paper mounted to paperboard. 

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC 

 

 

 

Riding Around, 1969, oil on canvas.

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Promised gift of his daughter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

Daydreams, 1970, oil on canvas.

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC 

 

 

 

Caught, 1970, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Loaned to the National Gallery in 2023 by Denver Art Museum Collection

 

 

 

Untitled, 1970, black crayon on paper

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Baltimore Museum of Art

 

 

 

 

Dawn, 1970, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Glenstone Museum, Potomac, MD loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC in 2023

 

This image hung heavy on the artist’s spirit.

The Klan is there even at the magical dawn hour; and also there is the memory of his brother who died when his car rolled back onto him.

 

 

 

***********************

 

1974-1980

 

 

 

The Oracle, oil on canvas, 1974

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Baltimore Museum of Art

The oracle is looking outwards to the entire unholy mess.

 

 

 

Painter’s Hand, 1975, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Promised gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, loaned to the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC in 2023

 

 

 

In the Studio, 1975, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

The Palette, 1975, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.

Promised gift of his daughter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

Deluge II, 1975, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

 

Cherries, 1976, oil on canvas.

  Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

Green Rug, 1976, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

Rug, 1976, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

 

Cabal, oil on linen, 1977.

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Whitney Museum of (North) American Art. 

 

The  background is the Watergate scandal.  A cabal around the president was said by the mainstream media to be running the White House.

 

 

 

The Street, 1977, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC in 2023

 

 

 

Head, 1977, oil on canvas. 

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

Legend, 1977, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston loaned to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

 

The Line, 1978, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Promised gift of the artist’s daughter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, loaned to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

The hand of God.  The artist seems to be pointing up the ambiguity he felt about drawing and painting altogether.  “It’s kind of like the devil’s work,” he said. “Only God can make a tree.”

 

 

 

Painter’s Forms II, 1978, oil on canvas.

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada. Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

Moonlight, 1978, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Solomon R. Guggenheim, NY

 

 

 

Sleeping, 1977, oil on canvas.

Philip Guston, American born Canada, 1913-1980. Promised gift of his daughter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

The disposition of Guston’s body here is a reference to a painting of Mantegna: Lamentation over the Dead Christ, c. 1483 which was one of this painter’s favourite paintings.

 

 

 

Black Sea, 1977, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, American born Canada, 1913-1980.  Loan from the Tate, London to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

 

Aegean, 1978, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, American born Canada, 1913-1980. Private loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

The artist gave no context for this painting.  In 1978, however, he noted that all things shift and change and that nothing was stable.

 

Tomb, 1978, oil on canvas.

Philip Guston, American born Canada, 1913-1980.

 

 

 

Painter’s Hand, 1979, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Promised gift of the artist’s daughter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

 

 

 

Talking, 1979, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  MOMA, NY

 

 

 

 

Balance, 1979, oil on canvas.  Promised gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by the artist’s daughter, on loan in 2023 to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Reverse, 1979, oil on canvas.  

Step, 1979, oil on canvas. 

 

All three paintings are set in the painter’s studio and depict the same forms as appear in many of his images.

 

 

 

Reverse, 1979, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Anonymous loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC in 2023

 

 

 

Step, 1979, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC in 2023

 

 

 

Flame, 1979, oil on canvas

Philip Guston, American born Canada, 1913-1980.  Promised gift of the artist’s daughter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY on loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

 

 

Untitled, 1980, acrylic and ink on illustration board. 

Philip Guston, American born Canada, 1913-1980.  Promised gift of the artist’s daughter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

 

***********************

 

 

Guston took to creating lithographs – almost 60 – in the last 2 years of his life.

 

 

Gulf, 1979/80.  Lithograph. 

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

View, 1979-80.  Lithograph

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

Easel, 1979-80. Lithograph

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

Gulf, 1979-80.  Lithograph

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

 

Sea Group, 1979-80. Lithograph

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

Pile-Up, 1979-80.  Lithograph. 

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

Sky, 1979/80, lithograph. 

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

 

Painter, 1979-80, lithograph

Philip Guston, 1913-1980, American born Canada.  Philadelphia Art Museum

 

 

Philip Guston questioned what kind of a man he was, what his art had to do with anything; and what he should create in a world so full of evil and human vulnerability. 

 

Widely accepted by the public for  these images, the New York art establishment, his old colleagues, continued to shun him.

 

Philip Guston, who had withdrawn permanently in 1967 from New York city to his house in Woodstock, NY, died there in 1980.