Night Studio: A Memoir Of Philip Guston [Paperback]

Musa Mayer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 22, 1997

Philip Guston (1913–1980) was driven, sustained, and consumed by art. His style ranged from the social realism of his WPA murals through his abstract expressionist canvasses of the 1950s and 1960s (when he counted Pollock, Rothko, de Kooning, and Kline among his friends) to his cartoonlike paintings of Klansmen, disembodied heads, and tangled piles of everyday objects. Critics and public alike savaged Guston for his return to figurative art, but today his late work is recognized for the singular power of its darkly hilarious vision. Musa Mayer augments her firsthand knowledge with extensive interviews with his family, friends, students, and colleagues, as well as Guston's own letters, notes, and autobiographical writings, to re-create a turbulent era in American art. Night Studio, profusely illustrated (including almost a dozen paintings in full color), illuminates not only the life of a great artist, but the experience of growing up in his shadow.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Musa Mayer is the author of Examining Myself: One Woman's Story of Breast Cancer Treatment and Recovery. She lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; 1ST edition (March 22, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030680767X
• ISBN-13: 978-0306807671
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars worthwhile glimpses of a difficult genius, March 21, 2005

By 

R. Stoller - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Night Studio (Paperback)

Musa Mayer (Guston's daughter) has undertaken a brave and cathartic task in writing a biography of her father, a self-obsessed painter. Philip Guston could well be regarded as the last artist of an era inasmuch as Gustav Mahler could be regarded as the last composer of classical symphonies. With Guston one comes to the end of painting. What started with Cezanne ends here.

Guston knew he wanted to paint in the tradition of those before him and paid a heavy price in order to achieve it. Mayer's account is of a sometimes loving more often absent father who disappointed his daughter so much so that this book is also an attempt at healing wounds. Guston appears as a larger than life figure with equally large depressive states through which into the small hours he would struggle with his canvases.

Mayer is neither maudlin nor sentimental and for a few pages here and there gives crystalline insights into her father's work that any artist should appreciate.

This then is not your typical soup to nuts biography but rather a personal view of Guston as seen through the pained eyes of one trying to purge as well as admire.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best artist biographies i have read, January 11, 2000

By 

a painter (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Night Studio: A Memoir Of Philip Guston (Paperback)

As a painter, consumed by my own work at times, this book was such a treat. A wonderful and compelling look at one of the most influential artists of my career thus far. so emotional and real.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing up under the shadow of greatness . . ., December 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Night Studio: A Memoir Of Philip Guston (Paperback)

"Night Studio" is not only a compelling portrait of a great artist, but also a riveting story about life with an artist consumed and obsessed by his work. Plus, there's lots of cool pictures. This is NOT a dry biography.