Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations (Documents of Twentieth-Century Art) [Paperback]

Philip Guston (Author), Clark Coolidge (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2010 | Series: Documents of Twentieth-Century Art

This is the premier collection of dialogues, talks, and writings by Philip Guston (1913-1980), one of the most intellectually adventurous and poetically gifted of modern painters. Over the course of his life, Guston's wide reading in literature and philosophy deepened his commitment to his art--from his early Abstract Expressionist paintings to his later gritty, intense figurative works. This collection, with many pieces appearing in print for the first time, lets us hear Guston's voice--as the artist delivers a lecture on Renaissance painting, instructs students in a classroom setting, and discusses such artists and writers as Piero della Francesca, de Chirico, Picasso, Kafka, Beckett, and Gogol.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Lovingly compiled"--Artforum

"This hefty volume is 344 pages of smart art takes (Clark Coolidge, ed.) by the largely self-taught painter who, with pal Jackson Pollock, got expelled from L.A.'s Manual Arts High School in 1929."--Los Angeles Times, Culture Watch Blog

"This is a book of wisdom, not only for artists but for anyone seeking to learn something from art."--The Nation

"Expansive"--San Francisco Bay Guardian

"[Guston's] voice at its effusive best."--Jewish Exponent

From the Inside Flap

"This volume introduces the diverse voices that comprise Guston's linguistic tapestry. Guston never stopped talking for too long. There may have been periods of silence precipitated by existential moments of doubt, but such lapses seem anomalous when measured against the voluminous transcriptions gleaned and edited by Clark Coolidge. Coolidge has done an admirable job arranging and presenting the book's contents, entirely relevant to anyone curious about Guston, and by extension, American Art of the post-World War II period."--Douglas Dreishpoon, chief curator at Knox-Albright Gallery

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Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (December 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520257162
• ISBN-13: 978-0520257160
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #330,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pure genius, April 7, 2011

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mark andres - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations (Documents of Twentieth-Century Art) (Paperback)

The best most exciting book I've read in a very long time about painting written from the inside. It is for artists and not art lovers. Guston's mind is a delightful place to be and he writes and speaks about painting with rigor, humor and honesty in a way that will force you to call into question your assumptions about what painting is. The interviews and transcripts of impromptu discussions are marvelous-- many published here for the first time. Why it took this long for this book to come out is a mystery. This stands alongside Picasso on Art, Matisse's writings on art, and Sylvester's interviews with Giacometti as one of the great documents of a 20th Century artist struggling with the question of what is possible.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guston the thinker, February 3, 2011

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Claude Reich (Florianopolis, Brazil and Paris, France) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations (Documents of Twentieth-Century Art) (Paperback)

Philip Guston, one of the most important artists of the XXth century had this rare ability of being able to talk about art as well as he made it. His vast culture enabled him to draw inspiration from everyone from the Renaissance masters (Piero della Francesca) to Italian modernists (de Chirico), from Kierkegaard to Kafka, from Beethoven to his close friend Morton Feldman, etc.

This book is a compendium of lectures, conversations, interviews, in which the artist delivers a vision about his world, about art, about mankind, that is one of the deepest I, as a reader, have encountered. There are also some vivid accounts of the artist's experiences with Renaissance art, such as his visits to Arezzo and the shock he received when first confronted with Piero's frescoes depicting the Legend of the Cross. I personally think that there is nothing better than to listen to an artist speak about another artist and this is precisely what this book enables us to do.

I beg to differ with the previous reviewer:this book is for everyone; for everyone interested in art, in thinking and in reading, and for everyone who can make the effort of going beyond the obvious. Guston was a great artist, but he also was a great thinker and a great talker.

Highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read, December 3, 2011

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Børge Hav - See all my reviews

This review is from: Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations (Documents of Twentieth-Century Art) (Paperback)

I dont write reviews very often.

But this book deserves a recommendation.

Guston is not only a great painter and artist, but he is also a great talker and thinker.

This book contains writings lectures and conversations that you can read more then once.

Id like to quote Willam De Kooning

" You know,Philip,what your real subject is? It is freedom! "