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Lot Essay
The Guston Foundation confirms that this lot will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Philip Guston.
In 1967, Philip Guston had moved full time to his home and studio in Woodstock, New York, where he began the move from abstraction to figuration. Non-representational art, with its lack of social commentary during a time of political crises in America, had begun to lose its attraction. “What kind of man was I,” Guston questioned, “sitting at home, reading magazines, going into frustrated fury about everything and then going into my studio to adjust a red to a blue?” (P. Guston, quoted by S. O’ Hagan, “An Everyday Hero,” Guardian, January 11, 2004, via www.theguardian.com/ artanddesign/2004/jan/11/art [accessed 10/8/2017]). In Woodstock, Guston’s world became both larger and smaller. His imagination roamed wildly, leading to a new style of large sized figurative and mysteriously haunting paintings in hues of pink and red. But Guston also went small, reverting to a form of figurative drawing. The everyday became important and solid forms began to erupt again. He began drawing everything around, the books on the table, the shoes on the floor and even the light bulb overhead. The viewer sees exactly this in Untitled—three books leaning to the left, a block of wood leaning right, a small organic shaped rock and, in the middle, a form that would continue to infuse his late paintings, a pink finger-like shape. In these works, each shape relating to Guston’s world—and his place in it.
In 1967, Philip Guston had moved full time to his home and studio in Woodstock, New York, where he began the move from abstraction to figuration. Non-representational art, with its lack of social commentary during a time of political crises in America, had begun to lose its attraction. “What kind of man was I,” Guston questioned, “sitting at home, reading magazines, going into frustrated fury about everything and then going into my studio to adjust a red to a blue?” (P. Guston, quoted by S. O’ Hagan, “An Everyday Hero,” Guardian, January 11, 2004, via www.theguardian.com/ artanddesign/2004/jan/11/art [accessed 10/8/2017]). In Woodstock, Guston’s world became both larger and smaller. His imagination roamed wildly, leading to a new style of large sized figurative and mysteriously haunting paintings in hues of pink and red. But Guston also went small, reverting to a form of figurative drawing. The everyday became important and solid forms began to erupt again. He began drawing everything around, the books on the table, the shoes on the floor and even the light bulb overhead. The viewer sees exactly this in Untitled—three books leaning to the left, a block of wood leaning right, a small organic shaped rock and, in the middle, a form that would continue to infuse his late paintings, a pink finger-like shape. In these works, each shape relating to Guston’s world—and his place in it.