Description:
Five contemporary writers respond to Guston's work through imaginative fiction that proves his continual influence on today's creative culture
In the short story collection Five Stories for Philip Guston, edited by Emmie Francis and Mark Godfrey, contemporary writers Christopher Alessandrini, Ben Okri, Thessaly La Force, Lou Stoppard and Audrey Wollen have created new fiction in conversation with Philip Guston (1913-80) and his painting. Christopher Alessandrini's queer, drily witty "Maverick Road" brings us to the contemporary environs of Guston's upstate haven. Ben Okri's "Bloodymindedness" is a stark portrait of violence and subversion. In "Looking," Thessaly La Force writes of the lingering power of painting and reputation with a tribute to Guston's exhibition in Venice's Gallerie dell'Accademia. Lou Stoppard's courtroom crucible "A Verdict" is a study in Kafkaesque atmosphere. Audrey Wollen works deftly with a kind of Oulipo constraint exercise--Giotto is there, but is Guston himself in "The Line"? Look for him, and he is everywhere.
Review Quotes: Guston is the catalyst moving each story along and driving many of the characters to better understand their limits and their desires - whether that's making art away from the distraction of failed love affairs or choosing to ignore a voicemail from a distant friend in a bid to start afresh.--Vanesa Peterson "Frieze"