Philip Guston

Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
Acquired by the present owner from the above

The work is in very good condition overall. There is evidence of light wear to the edges and corners of the sheet. There are artist's pinholes at the corners. The edges of the sheet have yellowed slightly with age. There are a few small repaired tears around the edges as follows: one 1/8 inch repaired tear located 2 inches from the lower right corner, one 1/8 inch repaired tear located 2 ½ inches from the lower left corner, one ¾ inch repaired tear at the lower right corner and one repaired tear across the edge of the lower left corner. The sheet is hinged verso intermittently to the matte. Framed under Plexiglas.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Philip Guston's career was impressive not only for its surprising duration, but also for his ability to endlessly push his work to new heights and considerations. He began making figurative works in the 1930s and shifted to abstraction in the late 1940s. Guston's thoughts towards abstract painting and especially abstraction were, much like his art, enigmatic and often contradictory, "There is something ridiculous and miserly in the myth we inherit from abstract art—that painting is autonomous, pure and for itself, and therefore we habitually define its ingredients and define its limits. But painting is 'impure.' It is the adjustment of impurities, which forces painting's continuity. We are image-makers and image-ridden." Guston's abstract style developed from the late 1940s until the 1970s, when he shocked the art world and even his close friends by debuting a series of figurative, cartoon-like paintings.

 

Untitled, from 1954 is one of the great abstract preparatory drawings Guston made at this early moment in his career, all of which are black and white and at a similar scale. These studies reveal Guston's attempt at achieving depth through fitful expression and the layering of violent gestures. This work's unique concentration of ink in the upper-right hand corner of the sheet defies gravity and upends a notion of centeredness in Guston's earlier abstract work. The trademark delicate brushwork of Guston's abstractions can be seen here, translated into ink. The historian Leo Steinberg saw a grim humanity within these works, which he elegiacally described as being "slow and hauled up from unspeakable depths of privacy... It is as if the hollow of man's body—scarred and stained with sin and hunger, pain and nicotine—were flattened like an unrolled cylinder and clothes-pinned to the sky."