 | The Return |
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 | Prospects |
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 | Untitled |
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 | City Limits |
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 | Head |
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 | Deluge |
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 | Outskirts |
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 | Green Rug |
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 | Pit |
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 | Curtain |
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 | Room |
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 | Talking |
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Phillip Guston has always been one of my favorite painters. His journey from social realism to abstract expressionism to a wonderful exploration of both is a delight to follow. Guston posed the constant question, what is painting? He is the painter's painter and loved by all.
There is a great documentary on Guston, filmed near the end of his life and just prior to a major retrospective at the San Fransisco Museum of Art. In this film, Guston elaborates on what consumes him: the dark spaces between forms, how to depict the edge of an object...that has stayed with me forever. He was beautiful.
I was recently at the National Galery in Washington and there was a mini-retrospective of Guston in the Atrium Gallery. I actually started crying that's how connected I am to him. Dead almost thirty years, I could practically smell the oil paint coming from the heavily loaded brush strokes of his clumsy objects.
Philip Guston
Meetmelissacarter.net
