Philip GUSTON (1911-1980)
1954-1955 Beggar's Joys
2008 SOLD for $ 10.2M by Sotheby's
Early and late in his career, the paintings by Philip Guston express his horror of racism and anti-Semitism. He is influenced by the social muralism of Siqueiros.
The 1950s constitute his intermediate period, which he will disown. Abstract expressionism and action painting attempt to resurface the basic sensations of human beings. Painting is an illusion that Guston then wants to use for releasing his perception of the atmosphere. The title of the work guides the visitor.
The color is applied in blocks which become lighter as we move away from the center. This centrifugal composition anticipates and perhaps even inspires the Parisian angers of Joan Mitchell.
That abstract expressionism in bolder colors by Philip Guston is beginning in 1955. A precursor in style had been Beggar's Joys, painted in 1954-1955 to narrate the extreme poverty of the artist, sold for $ 10.2M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2008, lot 30.
The 1950s constitute his intermediate period, which he will disown. Abstract expressionism and action painting attempt to resurface the basic sensations of human beings. Painting is an illusion that Guston then wants to use for releasing his perception of the atmosphere. The title of the work guides the visitor.
The color is applied in blocks which become lighter as we move away from the center. This centrifugal composition anticipates and perhaps even inspires the Parisian angers of Joan Mitchell.
That abstract expressionism in bolder colors by Philip Guston is beginning in 1955. A precursor in style had been Beggar's Joys, painted in 1954-1955 to narrate the extreme poverty of the artist, sold for $ 10.2M by Sotheby's on November 11, 2008, lot 30.
1955 The Visit
2017 SOLD for $ 8.4M by Sotheby's
Painted by Guston in 1955 in the same style as Beggar's Joy, The Visit displays a bold chromatic palette in a quest for color harmony around a collision of red, pink and lavender.
This oil on canvas 174 x 150 cm was sold for $ 8.4M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Sotheby's on November 16, 2017, lot 39.
The Street is based on an impastoed struggle between reds, pinks and grays. This oil on canvas 193 x 182 cm painted in 1956 was sold for $ 7.3M by Christie's on May 11, 2005, lot 31.
In the next year, Guston's palette becomes unexpectedly darker.
This oil on canvas 174 x 150 cm was sold for $ 8.4M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Sotheby's on November 16, 2017, lot 39.
The Street is based on an impastoed struggle between reds, pinks and grays. This oil on canvas 193 x 182 cm painted in 1956 was sold for $ 7.3M by Christie's on May 11, 2005, lot 31.
In the next year, Guston's palette becomes unexpectedly darker.
1958 To Fellini
2013 SOLD for $ 26M by Christie's
Other forms of art are also mere illusions, such as the projection of light filtered by a film onto a cinema screen. To Fellini was sold by Christie's on May 15, 2013 for $ 26M from a lower estimate of $ 8M, lot 23. This 175 x 188 cm oil on canvas painted in 1958 invites a comparison between both techniques.
1958 Nile
2022 SOLD for $ 18M by Sotheby's
Another opus is Nile, oil on canvas 165 x 190 cm also painted in 1958. It was sold for $ 18M by Sotheby's on May 17, 2022, lot 15, to benefit the O’Donnell philanthropic foundation.
Nile is a fair example of the abstract technique of the artist, who increased the emotional intensity by working in a very close proximity to the picture plane thereby removing the notion of space. Guston was an avid movie goer. It is believed that the title of that painting reminds a scene from Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 Ten Commandments in which Moses turns the river to blood.
Shortly after, Guston returns to a caricatural figuration, often with self-derision. The Ku Klux Klan is his target, but the public does not perceive the subversive message hidden behind his mockery hoods that are not threatening. A major exhibition was canceled in 2020 : the organizers were unable to disentangle the ambiguities of this artist who might have been a major precursor to street art.
Nile is a fair example of the abstract technique of the artist, who increased the emotional intensity by working in a very close proximity to the picture plane thereby removing the notion of space. Guston was an avid movie goer. It is believed that the title of that painting reminds a scene from Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 Ten Commandments in which Moses turns the river to blood.
Shortly after, Guston returns to a caricatural figuration, often with self-derision. The Ku Klux Klan is his target, but the public does not perceive the subversive message hidden behind his mockery hoods that are not threatening. A major exhibition was canceled in 2020 : the organizers were unable to disentangle the ambiguities of this artist who might have been a major precursor to street art.
1970 Bricks
2023 SOLD for $ 7.3M by Christie's
After a three years hiatus in his artistic career, Philip Guston left forever in 1968 the abstract expressionism for displaying his anguished view of the brutal modern world. He left New York City at the same time.
A world that did not eradicate the Ku Klux Klan is full of many threats including the horrible wars of the 20th century accompanied by dictatorships and unrest. He paints cartoonish forms in a reduced palette of pastel hues.
Executed in 1970, Bricks is one of the earliest paintings to stage a Klan's pointed hood as a stand alone character. Set on a chair, the hood is watching a flight of bricks in the sky, of which it is hurling another element with its left hand. The target is out of field.
This oil on canvas 83 x 194 cm was sold for $ 7.3M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 25A.
A world that did not eradicate the Ku Klux Klan is full of many threats including the horrible wars of the 20th century accompanied by dictatorships and unrest. He paints cartoonish forms in a reduced palette of pastel hues.
Executed in 1970, Bricks is one of the earliest paintings to stage a Klan's pointed hood as a stand alone character. Set on a chair, the hood is watching a flight of bricks in the sky, of which it is hurling another element with its left hand. The target is out of field.
This oil on canvas 83 x 194 cm was sold for $ 7.3M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 25A.
1972 Ominous Land
2021 SOLD for $ 9.5M by Sotheby's
Ominous Land, painted in 1972, gathers three of Guston's recurring symbols in fleshy pink, mauve, red and orange. The radiant sun cannot be joyous when it falls on a devastation, symbolized by an entanglement of human legs and shoe soles. This stack is observed by a typical hood of the Klan. The title is significant. This oil on canvas 183 x 206 cm was sold for $ 9.5M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Sotheby's on November 18, 2021, lot 105.
After that political phase, Guston turns his frustrated fury onto his own self. An artist is an abject hopeless creature that desperately paints, eats and smokes, and that's it. His symbols now include a square canvas painted in a fleshy monochrome pink with the only figure of a mystic eye of God in a bushy brow. The canvas is fitted on a metal box of same size closed by a row of nails.
A painting titled The Canvas features that weird one eyed object leaning onto his signature brick wall with nothing else to counter the closed nightmare. This oil on canvas 170 x 200 cm painted in 1973 was sold for for £ 3.1M by Sotheby's on October 12, 2023, lot 114.
After that political phase, Guston turns his frustrated fury onto his own self. An artist is an abject hopeless creature that desperately paints, eats and smokes, and that's it. His symbols now include a square canvas painted in a fleshy monochrome pink with the only figure of a mystic eye of God in a bushy brow. The canvas is fitted on a metal box of same size closed by a row of nails.
A painting titled The Canvas features that weird one eyed object leaning onto his signature brick wall with nothing else to counter the closed nightmare. This oil on canvas 170 x 200 cm painted in 1973 was sold for for £ 3.1M by Sotheby's on October 12, 2023, lot 114.
1973 Smoking
2019 SOLD for $ 7.7M by Phillips
Philip Guston was a night and day chain smoker, going straight to his own death, vainly opposing his own disillusions in an insomniac delirium.
In 1973 he begins a desperate series about Smoking, displaying himself burying in his bed at bust length with a lighted cigarette raised in his mouth. In the first opus, nearly monochromatic oil on canvas 134 x 137 cm kept at the Met Museum, some details define the head : forehead wrinkles, shaped hair around the ears and the huge empty eye.
In the same year, the second opus is still worse with the head figuration reduced to a stupid bean centered by the empty eye. The window behind the head is now a chimney that could capture the smoke of the cigarette, as evidenced by the fire poker behind it. A pale palette is back.
Smoking II, oil on canvas 100 x 170 cm, was sold for $ 7.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Phillips on November 14, 2019, lot 11.
In 1973 he begins a desperate series about Smoking, displaying himself burying in his bed at bust length with a lighted cigarette raised in his mouth. In the first opus, nearly monochromatic oil on canvas 134 x 137 cm kept at the Met Museum, some details define the head : forehead wrinkles, shaped hair around the ears and the huge empty eye.
In the same year, the second opus is still worse with the head figuration reduced to a stupid bean centered by the empty eye. The window behind the head is now a chimney that could capture the smoke of the cigarette, as evidenced by the fire poker behind it. A pale palette is back.
Smoking II, oil on canvas 100 x 170 cm, was sold for $ 7.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Phillips on November 14, 2019, lot 11.
masterpiece
1976 Monument
Tate Gallery
Monument, painted in 1976 by Philip Guston, displays an architecture made of a stack of bare legs and overturned shoes viewed from the sole. The legs are perpendicularly bent at the knee and all other parts of corpses are missing.
The whole is reminding bones in an ossuary. Guston, who was a son of Russian Jews and had a social sensitivity, had such a lasting nightmare as a reminiscence of the concentration camps.
The whole is reminding bones in an ossuary. Guston, who was a son of Russian Jews and had a social sensitivity, had such a lasting nightmare as a reminiscence of the concentration camps.
1976 Strong Light
2021 SOLD for $ 24.4M by Sotheby's
In his later career, an embittered Philip Guston was displaying his anguished view of the modern world.
A world that did not eradicate the Ku Klux Klan is full of many threats including the horrible wars of the 20th century accompanied by dictatorships and unrest. He paints cartoonish forms in a reduced palette of bright colors. The scenery may be lit by day by a full sun or by night by a huge bare electric bulb.
Strong light, painted in 1976, has the radiant bulb and the black background. Three elongated tightly knit human legs probably from dead humans mingle with five shoe soles on a carpet posed on a parqueted wood. This simplified composition does not include other symbols of the continuous social revolt of the artist.
This oil on canvas 204 x 175 cm was sold for $ 24.4M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 8.
In 1978 with Steppes, their unlimited and dense row beside a bleak wall is another reminder of the camps. By homophony with steps, Steppes is altogether referring to a place for Soviet camps, to the horror scene of the Potemkin and to the normal use of legs and shoes. Steppes, oil on canvas 173 x 223 cm, was sold for $ 6.7M by Christie's on May 16, 2024, lot 43 B.
Also painted in 1978, Red Sky features a row of soles without their associated legs, kept in boxes. This oil on canvas 210 x 270 cm was sold for $ 7.3M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2019, lot 24.
A world that did not eradicate the Ku Klux Klan is full of many threats including the horrible wars of the 20th century accompanied by dictatorships and unrest. He paints cartoonish forms in a reduced palette of bright colors. The scenery may be lit by day by a full sun or by night by a huge bare electric bulb.
Strong light, painted in 1976, has the radiant bulb and the black background. Three elongated tightly knit human legs probably from dead humans mingle with five shoe soles on a carpet posed on a parqueted wood. This simplified composition does not include other symbols of the continuous social revolt of the artist.
This oil on canvas 204 x 175 cm was sold for $ 24.4M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Sotheby's on November 15, 2021, lot 8.
In 1978 with Steppes, their unlimited and dense row beside a bleak wall is another reminder of the camps. By homophony with steps, Steppes is altogether referring to a place for Soviet camps, to the horror scene of the Potemkin and to the normal use of legs and shoes. Steppes, oil on canvas 173 x 223 cm, was sold for $ 6.7M by Christie's on May 16, 2024, lot 43 B.
Also painted in 1978, Red Sky features a row of soles without their associated legs, kept in boxes. This oil on canvas 210 x 270 cm was sold for $ 7.3M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2019, lot 24.
1976 Chair
2023 SOLD for $ 9.6M by Christie's
Chair, oil on canvas 173 x 205 cm painted by Guston in 1976, also gathers several symbols of the nightmare of the artist. It was sold for $ 9.6M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 22A.
A tangle of bare hairy legs raised from the ground is representing the doomed mankind. All are bent at the knee with no foot visible, either cut off off or hidden behind an accumulation of overturned nailed soles. A sole is laid on a chair viewed from profile.
The window is walled with bricks, obstructing the access to the world. The ring to pull the window is an oversized pendulum which expresses the inexorable run of time. Its rope is a reminder of the suicide of the artist's father half a century earlier
The rich surface in soft rose and pale gray of the wall of that bleak room may be a reminiscence from the abstract period of the artist two decades earlier.
A tangle of bare hairy legs raised from the ground is representing the doomed mankind. All are bent at the knee with no foot visible, either cut off off or hidden behind an accumulation of overturned nailed soles. A sole is laid on a chair viewed from profile.
The window is walled with bricks, obstructing the access to the world. The ring to pull the window is an oversized pendulum which expresses the inexorable run of time. Its rope is a reminder of the suicide of the artist's father half a century earlier
The rich surface in soft rose and pale gray of the wall of that bleak room may be a reminiscence from the abstract period of the artist two decades earlier.
1979 Painter at Night
2017 SOLD for $ 12.6M by Christie's
Philip Guston had been one of the best painters of the abstract expressionism, displaying explosions of colors from the center of his canvases.
He is however tormented by the question of the role of art. When he moves to Woodstock NY in 1967 he completely changes his approach to the detriment of his own career.
He no longer understands what is the purpose of juxtaposing bright colors. He will now show ordinary objects of his time in a drawing imitating cartoons with poor or lugubrious colors.
Painter at night, oil on canvas 172 x 203 cm painted in 1979, was sold for $ 12.6M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 11 B. This artwork bearing symbols from his whole life appears as his artistic testament. Did this chain smoker feel that his health was threatened ? He died in the next year of a heart attack.
The unshaved artist with dirty hair turns his back on the viewer. In his dignity as a creator, he is not embarrassed to look like a tramp. He holds his brush and looks at the smoke of his cigarette. The scene is barely lit by a small lamp that symbolized the suicide of his father in his teenager's drawings. Framed in a television it is only a picture in the picture : once again art did not express a reality.
Misunderstood in his later career, Guston has become the forerunner of a movement which does not yet have a name seeking to express the existentialist difficulty and the brutality of current life.
He is however tormented by the question of the role of art. When he moves to Woodstock NY in 1967 he completely changes his approach to the detriment of his own career.
He no longer understands what is the purpose of juxtaposing bright colors. He will now show ordinary objects of his time in a drawing imitating cartoons with poor or lugubrious colors.
Painter at night, oil on canvas 172 x 203 cm painted in 1979, was sold for $ 12.6M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 11 B. This artwork bearing symbols from his whole life appears as his artistic testament. Did this chain smoker feel that his health was threatened ? He died in the next year of a heart attack.
The unshaved artist with dirty hair turns his back on the viewer. In his dignity as a creator, he is not embarrassed to look like a tramp. He holds his brush and looks at the smoke of his cigarette. The scene is barely lit by a small lamp that symbolized the suicide of his father in his teenager's drawings. Framed in a television it is only a picture in the picture : once again art did not express a reality.
Misunderstood in his later career, Guston has become the forerunner of a movement which does not yet have a name seeking to express the existentialist difficulty and the brutality of current life.
