Guston - Thinking Pink Part 2
I could never understand what was so great about Philip Guston. When I’d see his work in museums or galleries, it was one painting at a time alongside other artists, never the whole package. I found them cartoonish, using the technique of a child and a mix of colors inspired by playing with food. Always among those colors, sticky-looking soupy swirls of that putrid color pink.
As part of my pursuit to get over my dislike of the color, I made a point to see the retrospective “Philip Guston Now” at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. this past summer. It was an eye-popping retrospective that covered his entire artistic journey, figurative to abstract and back, and his social justice activism. I was able to confront his pinks at close range, so much of it in his paintings that lambasted politicians, Klansmen and the war in Vietnam. It was stunning - attitude adjusted.
click on the right side of the image below to scroll left to right.
I was further won over after reading his cheeky quote mounted on a thirty-foot section of wall –
“I’ll just take white, and I’ll take cadmium red medium, which is my favorite color, and mix it up and make pink. That mess of pink makes me want to paint”. (detail below)
As mentioned in a previous post about the color pink, I credit my daughter for inspiring this project. Movie connoisseur that she is, she sent a YouTube link to a clip from the 1957 film “Funny Face”. If you’ve haven’t watched the scene “Think Pink”, you must. With an outstanding performance by the inimitable Kay Thompson, it became a delightful affirmation while exploring the history of the color. My radar for pink was primed. And I now see it and love it - everywhere.
Thank you, Leo and Philip, a.k.a. Messi & messy, and all the pink-obsessed artists I now follow, for bringing me around. And thank you Annie for the icing on the cake. Now, have a peek at my “Pretty in Pink” gallery.
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