Philip Guston, Painting, Smoking, Eating (detail), 1973. Oil on canvas. Collection of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
Philip Guston Now
Across 50 years, the paintings of Philip Guston (1913–1980) shifted from figuration to abstraction and back again. Yet a persistent concern haunted each of his stylistic transformations: Guston never stopped questioning the place of the painter in the world. Animated by contradictions, his works are deeply ambiguous, defined equally by dark themes that touch on what he called the “brutality of the world” and the deep joy that he took in the process of painting.
This major exhibition—organized by the MFA; the National Gallery of Art, Washington; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Tate Modern, London—is the first retrospective of Guston’s work in nearly 20 years. The selection of 73 paintings and 27 drawings from public and private collections features well-known works as well as others that have rarely been seen. Highlights include paintings from the 1930s that have never been on public view; a reunion of paintings from Guston’s groundbreaking Marlborough Gallery show in 1970; a striking array of small panel paintings made from 1968 to 1972 as Guston developed his new vocabulary of hooded heads, books, bricks, and shoes; and a powerful selection of large, often apocalyptic paintings of the later 1970s that form the artist’s last major artistic statement.
- Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art, Level 2
Philip Guston, Couple in Bed, 1977
Oil on canvas. The Art Institute of Chicago, through prior bequest of Frances W. Pick, and memorial gift from her daughter, Mary P. Hines, 1989.435. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Philip Guston, Gladiators, 1940
Oil and pencil on canvas. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Edward R. Broida, 2005. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY.
Philip Guston, Painting, Smoking, Eating, 1973
Oil on canvas. Collection of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
Philip Guston, Head I, 1965
Oil on canvas. Tate Modern. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Photo: © Tate.
Philip Guston, Untitled, 1980
Acrylic and ink on illustration board. Private Collection. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
Philip Guston, City, 1969
Oil on canvas. Private Collection. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
Philip Guston, Book and Charcoal Sticks, 1968
Charcoal on paper. Private Collection. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
Philip Guston, Web, 1975
Oil on canvas. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Edward R. Broida, 2005. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY.
Philip Guston, Tower, 1970
Oil on canvas. Private Collection. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Reproduced with Permission.
Philip Guston, Dial, 1956
Oil on linen. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
Philip Guston, Aegean, 1978
Oil on canvas. Private Collection. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
Philip Guston, Black Sea, 1977
Oil on canvas. Tate Modern. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Photo: © Tate.
Philip Guston, Open Window, 1969
Oil on panel. Private Collection. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Reproduced with permission.
Philip Guston, The Ladder, 1978
Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Edward R. Broida, 2005.142.17. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Philip Guston, The Deluge, 1969
Oil on canvas. Bequest of Musa Guston. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth.
