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Philip Guston (Montreal, Canada, July 27, 1913 -
Woodstock, N.Y., June 7, 1980) was a notable
member of the New York School, which also numbered
many of the Abstract Expressionism|Abstract
Expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem
De Kooning, as well a painter that lead the
transition from Modernism to Post-Modernism in
painting. Born Philip Goldstein in Montreal,
Canada, Guston, with his family, moved to Los
Angeles as a child. He began painting at the age
of 14, and in 1927 he enrolled in the Los Angeles
Manual Arts High School where he, and Jackson
Pollock, studied under John de St. Vrain
Schwankovsky where they were introduced to Modern
European art, oriental philosophy, theosophy and
mystic literature. Apart from his high school
education and a one-year scholarship at the Otis
Art Institute in Los Angeles, Guston remained,
largely, a self-taught artist.

In 1936, Guston moved to New York, and worked as
an artist under the Works Progress
Administration|WPA scheme. During this period his
work can be typified by strong references to
Renaissance painters such as Paolo Uccello,
Masaccio, and Giotto. These references can be
found by his sometimes awkward, but always
calculated, draughtsmanship of the figure.
Influences of the American Regionalists and
Mexican mural painters can also be found. During
this period he accepts a teaching position at
Washington University, St. Louis. He holds this
position from 1945-1947.

In the 1950s, Guston achieved success as a
second-generation Abstract Expressionist. His
paintings, done in a style he dubbed "Abstract
Impressionism," generally consisted of one to
several masses of color floating around the middle
of the canvas. 

In the late 1960s, he became tired of the purity
associated with abstraction and began painting
representational subjects again, but in a
cartoonish manner. When attacked about the
impurity of his later paintings, he responded,
"There is something rediculous and miserly in the
myth we inherit from abstract art. That painting
is autonomous, pure and for itself, therefore we
habitually analyze its ingredients and define its
limits. But painting is 'impure'. It is the
adjustment of 'impurities' which forces it
coninuity. We are image-makers and image-ridden.
There are no wiggly or straight lines..." In this
body of work he creates a lexicon of images such
as Klansmen, lightbulbs, shoes, interiors, and
cyclopses. Guston is best known for these late
existential and lugubrious paintings, which at the
time of his death in 1980 reached a wide audience,
and brought him to the attention of many painters,
and many imitators.