Philip Guston in his Studio
Artist
Arthur Swoger
(American, 1901–2000)
Printerprinted by
Arthur Swoger
(American, 1901–2000)
Publisherpublished by
Arthur Swoger
(American, 1901–2000)
Date1957
Mediumgelatin silver print
Dimensionssheet: 35.5 x 27.8 cm (14 x 10 15/16 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineAustin S. Garver Fund
Terms
Object number2003.35
Label TextAs a student at Los Angeles Manual Arts High School Philip Goldstein (1913–1980) and his friend Jackson Pollock were expelled for making a rude satirical pamphlet. They met again in New York twenty-five years later, when each was a luminary of Abstract Expressionism. Goldstein had changed his surname to Guston, a painter of powerful gesture and delicate color.
Though he worked in the a strict abstract model like his colleagues through most of his career, he eventually returned to figurative painting, using grotesque comic-strip-like iconography of shoes, Ku Klux Klan hoods, and dismembered body parts. In the October 1970 issue of ARTnews, Guston defended his change, saying, "I got sick and tired of all that Purity! [I] wanted to tell Stories."
Provenancethe artists' estate, purchased from his widow, Rachael Swoger, Providence, RIOn View
Not on view
Stephen DiRado
1990; printed 2017
Robert Doisneau
1951, printed 1984
