Philip Guston, The Studio (1969). Oil on canvas, 121.9 x 106.7 cm. Private Collection. Photo: Genevieve Hanson.
Tracing Philip Guston‘s mid-career departure from abstraction, Hauser & Wirth are showing 18 masterpieces made between 1969–1979, which are as hotly sought-after today as his hallmark abstract works of the 1950s.
A fierce debate rocked the art world last year, when his U.S./U.K. museum retrospective was pulled over concerns surrounding public misinterpretation of Guston’s subject matter, in particular his depictions of hooded Klansmen.
As Vivian Chui highlights in Ocula Magazine, the artist’s work ‘remains as relevant, or perhaps even more so, than ever’. Hauser & Wirth rises to the challenge to present his work, demonstrating the artist’s ‘masterful ability to tap into the lasting imprints that hatred and tragedy leave on the human psyche.’
His postponed museum retrospective will be launching in May 2022 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where it will travel on to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington before its final stop at London’‘s Tate Modern in October 2023.
Main image: Philip Guston, The Studio (1969). Oil on canvas, 121.9 x 106.7 cm. Private Collection. Photo: Genevieve Hanson.
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