Powerful expression, technical mastery, and a distinctive style: Philip Guston’s abstract works from the 1950s uniquely embody the essence of Abstract Expressionism. This revolutionary movement is widely considered the first American art movement to have international impact. It began to take shape in the late 1940s—even before Pop Art and Minimal Art—and, originating in the United States, went on to conquer the international art world. Although Philip Guston never considered himself an Abstract Expressionist, he ranks alongside Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, and Willem de Kooning as one of the most important figures of a movement that was so pivotal to postwar art. Abstract Expressionism set out to find personal expression through a non-representational use of color, making emotions, experiences, and impulses tangible on the canvas. Jackson Pollock’s Action Painting, Mark Rothko’s Color Field Painting, and—last but not least—Philip Guston’s abstractions, often described as lyrical and poetic, embody—in all their formal diversity—this unifying, groundbreaking understanding of art.

In his abstract works of the early 1950s, Philip Guston began to explore the pictorial space, initially using nearly monochromatic hues or shades that varied only slightly within a single color group. Short brushstrokes form grid-like structures, converging at the center and gradually losing density toward the edges of the picture until they dissolve into a pictorial space that generally grows lighter. Over the years, the artist increasingly turned to the pure power of color, using it more intensely and with greater confidence in broad, spirited brushstrokes. Primary colors such as red, green, blue, and yellow increasingly take the lead. At the same time, the peripheral areas of his works, whether on canvas or, as here, on paper, usually remain unpainted. The color gathers in the center of the painting as before, probing the surface with a few runners, as if seeking to discover how far it can penetrate space with its inherent expressive power. In this liminal state—between powerful and delicate sections, between the force of the color and spatial restraint—the special appeal of Philip Guston’s abstract works emerges and ultimately establishes his unique position within Abstract Expressionism. [AR]