Philip Guston: The Danger is in Looking Away on Collecteurs Magazine.

“These paintings meet the moment we are in today. The danger is not in looking at Philip Guston’s work, but in looking away.”

– Musa Mayer, daughter of Philip Guston

On September 25, 2020, four major museums announced the second postponement of a traveling Philip Guston retrospective, titled Philip Guston Now, over concerns about how the works, which are highly critical of white supremacy and systemic racism, will be perceived. On June 7, 2020 the show was scheduled to open at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, before moving on to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Tate Modern in London, and finally, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

In a joint statement posted on the National Gallery’s website, the museums said:

“We are postponing the exhibition until a time at which we think that the powerful message of social and racial justice that is at the center of Philip Guston’s work can be more clearly interpreted.

We recognize that the world we live in is very different from the one in which we first began to collaborate on this project five years ago. The racial justice movement that started in the U.S. and radiated to countries around the world, in addition to challenges of a global health crisis, have led us to pause.”

Musa Mayer, the daughter of Philip Guston and head of the Guston Foundation, released a statement of her own:

“Half a century ago, my father made a body of work that shocked the art world.”

Philip Guston – City Limits, 1969 (oil on canvas) – Image courtesy MoMA

“Not only had he violated the canon of what a noted abstract artist should be painting at a time of particularly doctrinaire art criticism, but he dared to hold up a mirror to white America, exposing the banality of evil and the systemic racism we are still struggling to confront today.”

Philip Guston – Dawn, 1970 (oil on canvas)

“They plan, they plot, they ride around in cars smoking cigars. We never see their acts of hatred. We never know what is in their minds. But it is clear that they are us. Our denial, our concealment.”

Philip Guston – Courtroom, 1970 (oil on canvas) – Image courtesy National Gallery of Art D.C.

“My father dared to unveil white culpability, our shared role in allowing the racist terror that he had witnessed since boyhood, when the Klan marched openly by the thousands in the streets of Los Angeles.”

Philip Guston – Central Avenue, 1969 – Image courtesy University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Philip Guston – Drawing for Conspirators, 1930 (graphite, pen, ink, colored pencil and wax crayon on paper) – Image courtesy The Whitney Museum

Philip Guston – Riding Around, 1970 (oil on canvas)

Philip Guston – By the Window, 1969 (oil on canvas) – Image courtesy The Estate of Philip Guston

Philip Guston – The Studio, 1969 (oil on canvas)

Philip Guston – Inside, 1969 (oil on canvas)

Philip Guston – Untitled, 1971 (oil on paper mounted on canvas)

Philip Guston – Untitled, 1971 (oil on canvas) – Image courtesy The Estate of Philip Guston

Philip Guston – Untitled, 1968 (acrylic on panel) – Image courtesy Hauser & Wirth

Philip Guston – Cigar, 1969 (oil on canvas)

Philip Guston – Cornered, 1971 – Image courtesy TATE Museum

Philip Guston – Edge of Town, 1969 (oil on canvas) – Image courtesy Edward R. Broida Collection and MoMA

Philip Guston – Flatlands, 1970 (oil on canvas) – Image courtesy Hauser & Wirth

Philip Guston – The Picture, 1971 (oil on paper mounted on panel) – Image courtesy Hauser & Wirth

Philip Guston – Untitled (Rome), 1971 (oil on paper mounted on panel) – Image courtesy Hauser & Wirth

Philip Guston – Untitled, 1971 (oil on canvas) – Image courtesy Hauser & Wirth

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