Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The Not-So-Seen Philip Guston.



During the late 30s & early 40s, Guston worked for the WPA and these paintings are in great contrast to his later (more known) work that incorporated cartoon-like imagery (though he used the same motif seen in the last image later in his work).
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2 comments:

r8r said...

I guess I can see in the first picture the same preoccupation with mismatched debris and junk.

And I can see in the third picture the theme of the masked judge, which seems to be equal parts Inquisition and Klan. That figure seems to be the self-appointed moralist that Guston dislikes.

His pictures always seem to be about freedom. That freedom to be combative, to be lazy, even to be disgusting, is always better than the best-intentioned order imposed from without.

The second picture, though, the one that looks like de Chirico might have done it, is the biggest surprise. I never knew he had gone through a phase like that.

6/23/2008 8:45 AM
Onsmith said...

R8R - thanks for checking out my blog and leaving this very thoughtful comment! I appreciate it. I think you're right about the freedom angle and his stylistic evolution reinforces this idea. Thanks again.

6/24/2008 9:53 PM

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