Go Figure! New Perspectives On Guston

Description

Go Figure!, a lavishly illustrated volume of essays about Philip Guston (1913-1980), considers the late work of Guston who was a friend and contemporary of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. This volume illustrates the enduring power of his work, particularly the fireworks generated by expressive contradictions embodied in his last paintings. Among the lessons Guston still has to teach is the necessity of constantly messing up the tidy models of artistic "progress" that aesthetic ideologues and tastemakers keep handing down from on high. Unlike the work of many of his contemporaries, Guston's paintings look anything but dated today. The book's contributors: David Anfam, Dore Ashton, Kosme de Baranano, Bill Berkson, Chuck Close, Barbara Drudi, David Kaufmann, David Lewis, Ara H Merjian, Achille Bonito Oliva, Christoph Schreier, and Robert Slifkin.

Peter Benson Miller is Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy in Rome. In 2010, he curated the exhibition Philip Guston, Roma at the Museo Carlo Bilotti--Aranciera di Villa Borghese in Rome, which then traveled to the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Robert Storr is the Dean of the Yale University School of Art. He was commissioner of the 2007 Venice Biennale. He is the author of numerous catalogs, articles, and books, including Philip Guston.

"A serious consideration of an often paradoxical painter, this collection contributes significantly to Guston's enduring legacy." -Publishers Weekly