Philip Guston: The Studio (1969)

Early in his career, Philip Guston’s paintings were abstractly generated which told a bleak story in which artists’ expression was obscure. As his career went forward, Guston began to step away from such painterly abstraction as he returned to figuration. His new works showed the presence of almost “cartoon like” subjects in which he drew from cultural issues such as the Ku Klux Klan which can be traced back to his childhood. He began to “portray himself, as in The Studio, as a cowled presence amid the doubts and difficulties of the working environment” (Archer, pg. 154-55). His return to figuration would be seen and “horrifying to some of his supporters” (Farthing, pg 440) who saw his new works as ugly. He later became known for these new images, but the rapid translation of his work shocked many in the art world. He could be one of the few artists to return from abstract expressionism to figurative painting.

Guston and a group of young artists in the 70’s (Susan Rothenberg and Jennifer Bartlett) began to incorporate figures in their styles of painting in which they “inherited from minimal” in the 60’s (Russell, pg. 456). Guston’s goal was to portray a subject in a manner in which had not been used before. His art began to look much like earlier pop art and was criticized for “selling out”. The Studio hosts a man in a white hood (a reference to the KKK) painting himself while smoking a cigarette. The environment of this painting shows the confusion of the artist and the question of his subject matter. Guston commonly uses the man in a white hood to portray social issues that are imbedded in the symbol the KKK. He also shows references to the hand of god in his art with the use of an oversized hand which might show the question of human existence.

In The Studio, Guston covers many themes which he uses by touching on the subject abstractly with symbolism. His brushwork in this piece borrows from the ideas in abstract art, and the formation of images and background also show glimpses of minimalism. Random images in the background give hidden meaning such as the light bulb, the clock, and cigarettes (which might refer to the agony of death and human mortality). I like this piece because he uses many styles together and shows them off in a silly, yet interesting fashion. I would describe his work with a blending of Lichtenstein’s pop art and Gorky’s abstract expressionism. Looking at his more recent works reminds me of reading a comic book, which also brings me back to my childhood.