Guston Now

Excellent online study day from the London Art History Society on Philip Guston.

Ben Street took us clearly through the different phases of Guston’s career from figurative painting to abstraction and back to figurative work. He explained the themes of the work and placed the in the context of the times in which they were painted.

I didn’t know Guston’s work but wanted to see the exhibition at Tate Modern and was looking for a good introduction to the artist and this gave me a good grounding for when I did see the show a week or so later (watch out for my review of that). Street had covered some themes which didn’t come out clearly in the show and I felt it gave me a chance to view the work without obsessive reading of labels. 

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