Philip Guston: Roma

by Dore Ashton, Peter Miller, Philip Guston (Artist)

Since Philip Guston's death in 1980, his late figurative paintings and drawings have steadily reaped the acclaim they deserve--acclaim that was largely denied them during Guston's lifetime (Hilton Kramer infamously reviewed Guston as a "mandarin pretending to be a stumblebum" in a damning 1970 New York Times article). This volume reunites a selection of paintings from the Roma series, completed during Guston's residency at the American Academy in Rome in 1970-71. From early in his career, Guston had taken inspiration from Italian art, and his 1973 painting "Pantheon" features a list of Italian de Chirico, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Giotto and Tiepolo. Italian cinema (especially Fellini) and classical sculpture were also dear to his heart. The Roma works consolidate this dialogue with Italian art and culture. Diary entries published alongside the reproductions recount exchanges at the American Academy, pilgrimages to Venice, Arezzo, Sicily and Orvieto, and observations of the international cultural community in Rome.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2010

About the author

Dore Ashton (1928, – January 30, 2017) was a writer, professor and critic of modern and contemporary art. She was the author or editor of more than thirty books on art.

Reviews

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a catalogue for the current exhibit at the Phillips Gallery in DC. It is a beautiful book with great essays. I knew something about his codes and have been inspired by the accumulation of objects in his paintings. Guston voraciously absorbs experience and integrates allusions to what he has painted. So he uses roman spoglio, landscape shapes, hooded monks, the Italian emblemata, to further the allusions of his language of things: piles of shoes, legs, cigar smoking kkk, brick walls, guns.....

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the one I actually read. But I think it's a version of the other one. Both contain Guston's Roman paintings, starting in the late 1940s and ending with his resideny at the American Academy in Rome, 1970-1971.