Philip Guston

Philip Guston (Montreal, Canada, 1913–New York, United States, 1980) was an artist linked to Abstract Expressionism and to the later renewal of figurative painting. His career was marked by profound changes in language, from his early figurative works and murals to gestural abstraction and, later, a critical and symbolic figuration.

His work is known for painting of great material density, deliberately simple forms, and images charged with political, social, and existential tension. In the late 1960s, he abandoned abstraction to work with figures, everyday objects, fragmented bodies, and hooded characters, building an uncomfortable and personal visual universe around violence, memory, guilt, and the human condition.

His work is part of collections such as MoMA, Museo Reina Sofía, the National Gallery of Art, SFMOMA, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He has presented exhibitions in institutions such as MoMA, Tate Modern, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Museo Reina Sofía.