PHILIP GUSTON

Over a career spanning five decades, Guston moved from social realism and muralism to lyrical abstraction before making a radical and controversial return to figuration in his late work. His commitment to art rooted in genuine emotion and lived experience, along with his willingness to confront uncomfortable truths, has ensured his lasting impact on contemporary painting.

Early Life and Education

Born Phillip Goldstein in Montreal, Canada, Guston was the child of Jewish immigrants who had fled persecution in Ukraine. The family relocated to Los Angeles in 1919, where Guston's early exposure to racial violence and social injustice left a deep mark on his worldview. He briefly attended Otis Art Institute in 1930 but was largely self-taught, developing a strong admiration for Renaissance painters and Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera. By the mid-1930s, Guston was active in leftist circles, producing politically charged murals and paintings for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and other organisations.

Artistic Evolution: From Social Realism to Abstraction and Back

Guston's early career was rooted in political and social engagement. His murals for the WPA, such as those for the Queensbridge Housing Project and the Social Security Building in Washington, D.C., depicted the struggles and dignity of everyday people. Paintings like Bombardment (1937) responded directly to the violence of the Spanish Civil War, while his Cyclopean series of the early 1940s introduced a more personal, symbolic style.

By the late 1940s and 1950s, Guston emerged as a key figure in the New York School, contributing to the rise of Abstract Expressionism. His lyrical abstractions, characterised by delicate brushwork and nuanced colour, were celebrated for their poetic sensibility. However, by the late 1960s, Guston became disillusioned with abstraction, famously calling it 'a lie' and 'a sham'. This led to his dramatic return to figuration, a move that shocked the art world.

The Hooded Figures and Late Work

Guston's most celebrated and controversial body of work is his late figurative series from the late 1960s and 1970s, often referred to as his 'hooded figure' paintings. In works such as The Studio (1969), Bad Habits (1970), and Riding Around (1969), Guston depicted cartoonish figures wearing Ku Klux Klan hoods engaged in banal, everyday activities. These unsettling images served as stark allegories for political corruption, racism, and personal complicity, with Guston describing the hooded figures as self-portraits: "They are self-portraits ... I perceive myself as being behind the hood ... The idea of evil fascinated me ... I almost tried to imagine that I was living with the Klan'. Alongside these, Guston also created satirical drawings of President Richard Nixon and his administration, collected in the Poor Richard series.

Controversy and Legacy: Philip Guston Now

The touring retrospective Philip Guston Now—organised by the National Gallery of Art, Tate Modern, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston—became the subject of significant controversy. Initially scheduled for 2020, the exhibition was postponed following concerns that Guston's depictions of Ku Klux Klan figures could be misinterpreted during heightened public conversations around racial justice. The decision to delay the show was met with widespread criticism, with many arguing that confronting complex subject matter was central to Guston's intent. When the exhibition opened in 2022 with expanded interpretive materials, it emphasised Guston's engagement with issues of complicity, racism, and moral reckoning. The controversy underscored Guston's ongoing relevance to contemporary discussions around art, ethics, and representation.

Influence on Contemporary Art

Guston's rejection of abstraction in favour of raw, confrontational figuration paved the way for movements such as Neo-Expressionism and continues to resonate with contemporary painters, including Dana Schutz, Nicole Eisenman, Tala Madani, and Kerry James Marshall. His insistence on vulnerability, ambiguity, and moral introspection has helped redefine expectations around political engagement and narrative in painting, with his legacy visible in the continued emphasis on personal mythology, irony, and critique in today's art practices.

Awards and Accolades

• Guggenheim Fellowship (1947)
• Prix de Rome (1949)
• American Academy of Arts and Letters membership (1972)

Selected Solo Exhibitions

• Philip Guston Now, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Tate Modern, London (2020–2024).
• Philip Guston: What Kind of Man Am I?, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2023)
• Philip Guston, Saint Louis Art Museum (2022)
• Philip Guston and The Poets, Gallerie dell' Accademia, Venice (2017)
• Philip Guston: Return to Figuration, Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam (2013)
• Philip Guston Retrospective, SFMOMA and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1980–1981)
• Philip Guston: Roma, Museo Carlo Bilotti, Rome (2007)
• Philip Guston: Late Paintings, Whitechapel Gallery, London (1982)

Selected Group Exhibitions

• Corps et âmes, Bourse de Commerce, Paris (2025)
• Draw Them In, Paint Them Out: Trenton Doyle Hancock Confronts Philip Guston, The Jewish Museum, New York (2024)
• Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2023)
• Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2020)
• Abstract Expressionism, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2016)
• The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014)
• Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic 1945–1965, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2016)
• Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940–1970, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2023)

Critical Reception

Major art publications including Artnet, The Brooklyn Rail, and The New York Times have widely covered Guston's practice. Critics and artists alike continue to debate and celebrate his willingness to grapple with the 'brutality of the world' and the ambiguity of the human condition.

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Annabel Downs | Ocula | 2025