Philip Guston’s Major Retrospective Opens in Washington D.C.

It would be hard not to recognise Philip Guston‘s fleshy pink palette and iconic cartoonish style.

Dubbed America’s most controversial exhibition, Philip Guston Now (2 March–27 August 2023) arrives at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. for its third presentation—the touring exhibition’s last stop in America—before making its way across the pond to Tate Modern, London, in October.

Postponed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020, the four museums hosting Guston’s major retrospective (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., and Tate Modern, London) were met with opposition. Many cited the delay as an act of censorship.

Finally open, Guston’s profound paintings are more powerful than ever. Figures rendered in cartoon-style realism with crimson and blushing-pink tones unfold narratives that simultaneously provoke, repel, attract, and resonate.

In Legend (1977), Guston finds himself the subject. The nightmarish mise-en-scène grips your gaze—from abandoned cigarette butts to overturned bottles of alcohol and a violent fist to a horse’s rear—Guston’s imagery resonates with earnest humanism.

As the first retrospective of Guston’s work in nearly two decades, Philip Guston Now demonstrates the Canadian American artist’s commitment to engage with what he called the ‘brutality of the world’.

Main image: Philip Guston, Legend (1977). Oil on canvas. 175.26 × 199.39 cm. © The Estate of Philip Guston. Courtesy the artist and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Museum purchase funded by the Alice Pratt Brown Museum Fund.