A Critical Study of Philip Guston

Dore Ashton

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9780520329010
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Artist Monographs

Dore Ashton has updated the bibliography and added a new concluding chapter to her classic study of the paintings and drawings of Philip Guston, the only study of his work completely authorized by the artist. Philip Guston (1913-1980) was one of the most independent of the painters whose work was loosely linked by the term "abstract expressionism" during the 1950s, and he baffled admirers of his lushly beautiful abstract expressionist paintings by moving abruptly in mid-career to gritty figurative paintings in an almost cartoon-like style. One of the few critics who saw this at the time as a progressive development in his work was Dore Ashton, who here analyzes Guston's paintings and drawings in the context of the cultural milieu in which he worked, illuminating the dilemma facing artists who try to live with, understand, and express both the ideals of art and the reality of the world. This title was originally published in 1976.
Dore Ashton has updated the bibliography and added a new concluding chapter to her classic study of the paintings and drawings of Philip Guston, the only study of his work completely authorized by the artist. Philip Guston (1913-1980) was one of the most

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents 10
• Chronology
• Introduction
• Conspirators I
• Bombardment II
• Martial Memory III
• Sanctuary IV
• If This Be Not I V
• Tormentors VI
• Drawing VII
• Attar VIII
• Alchemist IX
• Inside Out X
• The Studio XI
• The Desert XII
• Survivor of the Combat XIII
• Afterword
• Notes
• Bibliography
• List of Illustrations
• Index