Wednesday 1 June 2011

Philip Guston - part 2


This is the second part of a two-part post looking at the work and career of painter Philip Guston. For biographical notes and work produced during his abstract expressionist period, see part 1 below.
Around 1967 when Guston moved to Woodstock, New York his work underwent a shocking and radical change. Departing from the earlier lyrical and colourful abstract pieces he moved towards a more figurative approach. He somewhat shocked the art establishment by making reference to comic book style, something he had always been a fan of, particularly the Krazy Kat work of cartoonist George Herriman.

George Herriman's 'Krazy Kat'

Philip Guston's 'Edge of Town' 1969
He began working in this style at the time of the emergence of the new adult ‘underground’ comics, the leading exponent of which was Robert Crumb, whose work clearly had some influence on Guston. It is thought that Guston’s 1977 piece ‘Cabal’ paid direct homage to Crumb’s work.

Robert Crumb "Keep on Truckin'..."

Philip Guston's "Room" 1976 
oil on canvas
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 – New York Times critic Hilton Kramer wrote "A Mandarin pretending to be a Stumblebum.”
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 where he showed 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. There are no wiggly or straight lines..." 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 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.

1969 City Limits 
oil on canvas

1969 Outskirts 
oil on canvas

1969 The Studio 
oil on canvas

1970 A Day's Work 
oil on canvas

1970 Courtroom 
oil on canvas

1970 Daydreams 
oil on canvas

1973 Painting, Smoking, Eating 
oil on canvas

1975 Deluge II 
oil on canvas

1975 Midnight Pass Road 
oil on canvas

1976 Ancient Wall 
oil on canvas

1976 Green Rug 
oil on canvas

1976 The Pit 
oil on canvas

1977 Back View 
oil on canvas

1977 Cabal 
oil on canvas

1977 Curtain 
oil on canvas

1977 Sleeping 
oil on canvas

1978 As it Goes 
oil on canvas

1979 Entrance 
oil on canvas

1979 Talking 
oil on canvas


Monday 30 May 2011

Philip Guston - part 1

This is the first of a two-part post on the works of Philip Guston. This first post deals with his earlier, more ‘conventional’ abstract expressionist style if you will. The second post focuses on the radical change of style his work underwent in the late 1960s, and for which he is arguably better known.

Philip Guston (1913 – 1980) 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 favour of more cartoonish renderings of various personal symbols and objects.

Guston, was born in 1913 in Montreal. In 1919 his family moved to Los Angeles, and with an interest in art, he was encouraged by his mother to take a correspondence course in cartooning. He attended the Manual Arts High School, where he became a friend of Jackson Pollock, a fellow student. After being expelled from that school, Guston independently pursued his interest in art, including comics, as well as delving into various philosophical theories. In 1930 he received a scholarship to the Otis Art Institute. He left after three months.

In 1935–1936 he moved to New York, where he worked on murals for the Works Progress Administration on their Federal Art Project. His works from this period tend toward realist social commentary but also suggest his exploration of more abstract approaches. From 1941 to 1945, he taught at the State University of Iowa in Iowa City.

1945 marked Guston’s first solo exhibition at The Midtown Galleries and a first prize award at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh. In 1947, when he had a summer home in Woodstock, New York, Guston came to know abstract painter Bradley Walker Tomlin and became more attentive to the abstract art that was a hallmark of New York’s art scene.

Bradley Walker Tomlin No.13 1952
In 1948-1949, the Prix de Rome took him to Europe, after which he moved to New York, becoming part of a circle of artists, composers, and writers including Barnett Newman, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, and John Cage.

During the 1950s Guston entered a new phase of abstract expression. Thick strokes in lush hues are woven into complex surfaces, with the brighter colours massed at the centre of the canvas; these works became hallmarks of the artist’s style. They were well received, with The Museum of Modern Art purchasing of one of his paintings in 1956. After traveling to Europe in 1960, Guston had a major retrospective at the Guggenheim in 1962.

In 1967, he moved to Woodstock permanently, and began painting in a symbolic style that revived the cartoon like forms and figures that he drew as a young man. 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 at his home in Woodstock.

1947-48 The Tormentors 
oil on canvas

1950 Leaving 
quill and ink on paper

1951 White Painting II 
oil on canvas

1952 Painting No. 9 
oil on canvas

1952 To B.T.W. 
oil on canvas

1952 Untitled 
oil on canvas

1953-54 Zone 
oil on canvas

1954 Untitled

1954-55 Beggar's Joy 
oil on canvas

1955 For M 
oil on canvas

1956/57 The Clock 
oil on canvas

1957 Abstraction 
oil on paper

1957 Native's Return 
oil on canvas

1957 Oasis 
oil on canvas

1957 The Mirror 
oil on canvas

1958 Spring II 
oil on canvas

1960 Painter III 
oil on canvas

1963 Untitled 
synthetic polymer on paper

1966 Untitled ( #11 ) 
lithograph

1969 Edge of Town 
oil on canvas

1969 Edge of Town ( detail )

* See part 2 on Philip Guston for later works.