Transition

Philip Guston, Transition, 1975, oil on canvas, 66 x 80 ¹⁄₂ in. (167.6 x 204.5 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Musa Guston, 1992.89

Artwork Details

Title: Transition
Artist: Philip Guston
Date: 1975
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: 66 x 80 ¹⁄₂ in. (167.6 x 204.5 cm.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Musa Guston
Mediums: oil
Mediums Description: oil on canvas
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Abstract
Figure — fragment — hand
Dress — accessory — shoe
Object — furniture — clock
Object Number: 1992.89
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1992.89

Artwork Description

Philip Guston made a name for himself as an abstract expressionist, but by the late 1960s he had grown weary of "all that purity." He began creating crudely rendered and emotionally charged paintings filled with cartoony figures and mundane objects. The artist's shift in creative practice, referenced in this work's title, was not a slow and graceful transition but an abrupt right turn. Transition shows Guston hiding behind a canvas, as if taking refuge from the blast of bad press he received after his new work was shown in 1970. A tiny, clownish doorway suggests a move from one place to another, while the clock near the center points to the artist's canvas, as if ticking away the time Guston had left to paint. At once comic and disturbing, the painting is a surreal mix of allegorical and personal references.