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| Philip Guston, Alchemist, 1960, oil on canvas, 61 x 67 3/8 inches |
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| Philip Guston, Position I, 1965, oil on canvas, 65 x 80 inches |
Since I'm moving to a new house next week my time at the studio, or anywhere else for that matter, has been temporarily taken over with packing. Thankfully last week I was able to take a slight reprieve to go and see the Philip Guston show at Hauser & Wirth. Although I needed to climb over a few boxes to write this to you I wanted you to read it before the show closes next month.
Seeing this exhibit couldn't have come at a better time for me. While I'm at the cusp of an important address/life change, my work is also having a moment. It has reached its point to change directions.
With that, I think I can safely say this show has changed my life! Although it has left me with more questions than I know what to do with, I'm inspired to dig deeper within myself to find the thing that most interests me.
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| Philip Guston, Portrait I, 1965, oil on canvas, 68 3/8 x 78 inches |
How they work. It is baffling me. I've never been so perplexed by an exhibition. Why not paint to the edge? Why the same size brush throughout? Why the color choices? Why the muddy grey that's somehow not muddy at all? How is it possible for that black to work so well as a figure? How is he pulling this off? A line here, a gesture there and somehow we know exactly what he's trying to say. I don't know how he's done it but I'm determined to find out!
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| Philip Guston, Inhabiter, 1965, oil on canvas, 76 1/8 x 79 1/4 inches |
Guston believed artists don't always choose the kinds of paintings they inevitably end up making. That might go without saying. Guston was an artist who changed his course more than once and at no small cost to his professional career.
When I consider that, it makes me wonder why I am making the kinds of paintings I'm making...
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| Philip Guston, Untitled, 1962, oil on canvas, 66 x 73 inches |
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| Philip Guston, Group II, 1964, oil on canvas, 65 1/8 x 79 1/8 inches |
The show at Hauser & Wirth highlights the period smack in the middle between Guston's pure abstraction and late figuration. It's interesting that you can almost see his wheels turning, each brush stroke transporting him from one important moment to the next. Perhaps this work would look wholly different if we weren't able to place it so effectively in its historical place. But perhaps it would have succeeded just as well. I'm not sure about that, but I am sure that his mode of expressive painting seems to have chosen him rather than the other way around. No matter what, Guston was open to finding his absolute truth and the best way to represent it.
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| Philip Guston, Painter III, 1963, oil on canvas, 66 x 79 inches |
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| Philip Guston, The Wave I, 1967, Brush and ink on paper, 13 7/8 x 16 5/8 inches |
I'd say that's kind of where I'm at: I'm searching for my absolute truth and the best way to represent it.