{"id":856,"date":"2020-11-05T20:58:26","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T20:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.philipguston.org\/?p=856"},"modified":"2020-11-05T21:05:22","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T21:05:22","slug":"statement-by-musa-mayer-on-the-updated-schedule-for-the-philip-guston-retrospective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.philipguston.org\/index.php\/2020\/11\/05\/statement-by-musa-mayer-on-the-updated-schedule-for-the-philip-guston-retrospective\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement by Musa Mayer on the Updated Schedule for the Philip Guston retrospective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With regard to the postponed\u00a0Philip Guston Now<\/em>\u00a0retrospective,\u00a0there has been\u00a0real progress\u00a0in conversations with the directors of the\u00a0four host museums over the\u00a0past few weeks. Assurances have been made to me, as the daughter of the\u00a0artist and President of The Guston\u00a0Foundation about\u00a0the importance of sharing with the public\u00a0the full sweep of Guston\u2019s\u00a0vision in ways that speak to us all in the present day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Philip Guston did indeed address racism at key points in his career, his condemnation of social injustice and violence encompassed examples as varied as the Holocaust, the Spanish Civil War, the horrors of the Inquisition, the calumny of the Nixon administration, and police brutality against anti-war demonstrators in 1968. I believe it is essential for the exhibition to contextualize the depth of my father\u2019s social conscience, allowing the hooded figures and other imagery to reclaim their meaning, including but also moving beyond specific references to the Ku Klux Klan. Over his 50-year career, Guston\u2019s art reflected many other personal and painterly dimensions, including works that show his love of Renaissance painting and the 20th century masters he revered, his celebration of the act of painting in itself, and the confessional intimacy and self-revelation of his late works, with their universal human themes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we need now, as so many have pointed out, is to\u00a0actually see Philip Guston\u2019s paintings and drawings in all their\u00a0complexity,\u00a0without reductive characterizations. So, I\u00a0am\u00a0cautiously optimistic that we will all have a chance to do just\u00a0that, beginning in May of\u00a02022 at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. I\u00a0thank all those who have expressed such enthusiasm for my father’s work and\u00a0have called\u00a0for\u00a0Philip\u00a0Guston Now<\/em>\u00a0to go forward. Your\u00a0support has sustained me during a difficult time. I hope to join you\u00a0in celebrating the\u00a0retrospective when it opens.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Schedule for Philip Guston Now<\/em> Announced<\/a><\/p>\n

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