Painter III

Philip Guston, Painter III, 1960, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 1969.47.59
Copied Philip Guston, Painter III, 1960, oil on canvas, 60 5⁄8 x 68 in. (154.1 x 172.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc., 1969.47.59

Artwork Details

Title
Painter III
Artist
Date
1960
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
60 5⁄8 x 68 in. (154.1 x 172.8 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc.
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Abstract
  • Figure
Object Number
1969.47.59
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1969.47.59

Artwork Description

Painter III is an anxious, agitated painting that was completed shortly before Guston rejected abstraction and returned to recognizable imagery. “When the 1960s came along,” he said, “I was feeling split, schizophrenic. The [Vietnam] war, what was happening in America, the brutality of the world. What kind of a man am I, sitting at home, reading magazines, going into a frustrated fury about everything—and then going into my studio to adjust a red to a blue.” In 1970 he shocked the New York gallery scene when he opened a show that featured paintings with cartoon-like images of clocks, eyes, the soles of shoes, and other seemingly symbolic forms.

Modern Masters: Midcentury Abstraction from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2008