Description: Driven and consumed by art, Philip Guston painted and drew compulsively. This book takes the reader from his early social realist murals and easel paintings of the 1930s and 1940s, to the Abstract Expressionist works of the 1950s and early 1960s, and finally to the powerful new language of figurative painting, which he developed in the late 1960s and 1970s. Drawing on more than thirty years of his own research, the critic and curator, Robert Storr, maps Guston's entire career in one definitive volume, providing a substantial, accessible, and revealing analysis of his work.
With more than 850 images, the book illustrates Guston's key works and includes many unpublished paintings and drawings. An extensive chronology, illustrated with photographs, letters, articles, publications, and other ephemera drawn from the artist's archives and other sources, contextualizes Guston's life and provides in-depth coverage of his life at home, his work in the studio, his relationship with fellow artists and his many exhibitions. Guston was able to speak about art with unrivalled passion and fluency. In celebration of this, the book features Guston's own thoughts on his drawings and his great heroes of the Italian Renaissance.Review Quotes: "Philip Guston: A Life Spent Paintingis one of the biggest, heaviest art books this year, and every ounce of it is earned. Robert Storr, who's been writing about Guston (1913-80) for decades, strikes an easy balance between erudition and awe-he has all the facts, but you sense he'd be happy if you just basked in the images. They're all here: the rollicking Depression-era murals; the action paintings humming with Zen and Sartre; the cartoon Klansmen redolent of nightmare as well as therapy. Mr. Storr's is the definitive Guston book." Wall Street Journal