from: Thames & Hudson
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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 709
EAN num: 9780500284223
ISBN number: 0500284229
Label: Thames & Hudson
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: April 24, 2006
Publishing house: Thames & Hudson
Sale Popularity Level: 457337
Studio: Thames & Hudson
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'The single best introduction to a tremendous force in American painting.'—Chicago Tribune
Philip Guston (1913-1980) had been a successful abstract painter for almost two decades when he boldly returned to figurative work in the late 1960s. His uncompromising late paintings, which broke taboos, baffled his admirers, and shocked the art establishment, ultimately inspired succeeding generations of artists, invigorating painting with a new sense of mission.
This book, the most comprehensive survey of Guston's art to date, was originally published on the occasion of a major international exhibition. It brings together for the very first time the different bodies of the artist's work, exposing the connective threads between each of his developmental stages. In-depth essays by a noted group of critics and art historians explore Guston's early influences and the emergence of symbols that resurfaced and played prominent roles in his late work. They provide insight into Guston's philosophy regarding abstraction, his role within its development, and the social and art historical context from which his so-called 'Klan' paintings emerged. 197 illustrations, 158 in color.
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Rated by buyers -
I thought the book covered a lot of ground with a fantastic sweep of images from his early career to the end of his career. So if you want a book that covers his whole career then this is the book for you.
The essays are really interesting as well, with an analysis of his whole career, with particular reference to his later works.
I really liked the number of later works that are included.
Rated by buyers 
-
There are very few books available on Philip Guston's work and this one gives a good overview of his entire career. Guston influenced most of the important artists at work yesterday in some way or other, especially in his late works and the reasons for this influence become obvious when one skims through the pages of this retrospective and discovers what a great artist he was.
Many first-rate illustrations show the depth and scope of his art, with most of his seminal works (abstract as the canvas "Beggar's Joys" from the 1950's, figurative as the masterpiece "the Studio", from 1969) deciphered by a text which is informative as well as insightful.
Rated by buyers -
This overall is a great book. It might not be the same quality that I have seen in a few other Thames & Hudson publishings, but it still is a great read and summary of Guston's work. Anyone that loves his work, this is for sure a book worth having.
Rated by buyers -
The definitive book on Philip Guston with many illustrations from each period of his work. Many excellent essays including one in his own words describing the evolution of each painting.
I bought the book after seeing the exhibition in San Francisco. Fully aware that the colour illustratons were disappointing in quality (some paintings show pink ground colour when that just isn't so) it is still a book I wouldn't be without. But be aware, colour printing really isn't up to the quality found in many art books today.
Rated by buyers -
The Guston restrospective, which I viewed at the SFMOMA in July 2003, was a rich, disturbing, illuminating exhibit. This catalogue of that show reprints a tremendous range (over 130 works) of Guston's work, all of it in fine, nuanced photography of the canvases. The early work includes realistic paintings with war themes, street scenes, and images of urban childhood in the manner of Ben Shahn. Eerily, Guston's hoods and bootsoles already appear. Next, the book's coverage of Guston's abstract phase reveals indebtedness to Mondrian's very first abstractions; then Guston finds his own vocabulary in brisk, thick aggregates of rough rectangles on gently boiling backgrounds. Pink and blue predominate, as in his later work. As part of both his oevre and Abstract Expresionism, these are among the most successful, aesthetic works of this great period in American art. For offering this total record of his development and contributions, the book provides something of great value.
His brief but famous "Klan" period follows, and then the long final phase--the pink "lima-bean" heads, the skinny, runny-meat legs, the stubble, the huge stunned eyes. The book, like the show, exposes a startling range in these paintings, confirming that Guston's seemingly narrow palette and imagery served his imagination and themes with great breadth and force. Especially powerful are two drawings and a large painting of Nixon. The last work in the catalogue is a Guston-style deli sandwich, a small (18 by 18 inches?) but hugely sensual and humorous work that surprised me at the exhibit. The book also reproduces a number of crude yet painterly grey drawings done in few but expressive strokes.
The catalogue includes a useful chronology of Guston's life and work, many many photographs of him in various times and circumstances, and critical/historical exporation of his work via 4 or 5 articles penned by writers who cover varied topics relevant to his career and aims--all illustrated and all drawing on Guston's own statements and articles. His words include some provocative criticisms of the limitations of abstract art, a form which he of course abandoned in the mid 1960's. Abstract art fascinates me, yet Guston's statments gave/give me much to think about.
My sole major criticism of this otherwise terrific book is that it fails to reprint several of the works in the exhibit. Most of the missing work is owned by SFMOMA, which was one of the host museums, so this is a real mystery. Further, the missing works are among the best of the exhibition--and are thus as good as anything included in the book. The single most egregious omission is 1975's "Head and Bottle," a grim, transfixing portrayal of alcoholism. Also gone are a work Guston painted inspired by T. S. Eliot's "Four Quartets" and an epic and (arguably) hopeful triptych called "Red Sea, The Swell, and Blue Water." These great works all appeared in the exhibit, yet are nowhere in the catalogue. A few others are missing as well, but I'm not familiar enough with Guston's work to identify or even accurately describe them just from my visual memory of this enormous and stirring show, and that is precisely what is so frustrating about the book. Surely one essential purpose of an exhibition catalogue is to honor the total visual experience of its exhibit.
Of course, for each of these missing works, the book reprints several that are just as evocative and harrowing. Thus, as a monograph of Guston this is an excellent choice, one I will always find useful, beautifully produced, and engaging. I'm still very glad I bought it. But as a record of what the exhibit actually offered, as a way of re-experiencing the "Retrospective" of the book's title, the book falls a little short.
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