philip guston

I decided to research him today. I was attracted to his work but didn't "get" why. But some of his later works are so captivating. They are about studio, about life, about advancing towards something greater even if they are ambiguous and cartoonlike. They are an image, they are not for antyhing but the canvas. He has created his own language through masked figures, shoes, and cigarettes. They are symbols that serve as an extension of himself so completely. He has totally created his own language that is poetic in a completely unique way. Okay, enough platitudes. I think his work might exist in that liminal ambiguous space. Or at least it comes from there.


"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..." - Philip Guston


"Though Guston has run through the flaccid seventies with a spine of masterpieces unparalleled in quantity, brilliance, ambulation, and risk by anything in the history of american painting, more of us still don't "get" him than do.
So we come back all the way around: this business of "getting" and "not getting" art. What we ask from art, from paintings in particular, is, if not immediate recognition, then at least the security of knowing that we will eventually differentiate impulse from product. A niche will be found. A style or a subject matter, a consistency of attention or pose, either homage to or illustration of a radiant idea eventually will emerge.
But with Guston it hasn't."
- Ross Feld


In other news, yes, I will respond in posts. In response, I feel a little timid to reveal my face yet, too. But I want to explore why that is. Why do I not want to expose myself? why do I want to over or use mask?