Philip Guston
The Room1954-1955

On view:

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Vertical abstract oil painting with a dense cluster of brick red, burgundy, and charcoal brushstrokes at center, surrounded by a diffuse field of pale blush pink and silver gray

Artist or Maker: Philip Guston
Canada, active United States, 1913-1980
Title: The Room
Place Made: Canada
Date Made: 1954-1955
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 71 7/8 × 60 in. (182.56 × 152.4 cm)
Credit Line: Museum Purchase, Contemporary Art Council Fund
Accession Number: M.63.36
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Philip Guston’s paintings from the 1950s feature heavily built-up surfaces, with brighter, more vibrant colors clustered toward the center of the canvas, against a muted background. Guston was active in the New York School, a group of Abstract Expressionist painters working in New York in the 1950s. Unlike the so-called Action painters of the group, who employed dramatic gestures as they painted, Guston worked slowly and methodically, building up multiple layers of paint. He often described the artistic process as a mysterious one, arguing that one need not understand what the picture is or how exactly it comes into being to appreciate it.

Wall label, 2021.
Provenance: The artist (1913-1980); Virginia Dwan (1931-2022), Los Angeles; [Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles by 1960]; Sold in 1963 to LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Arnason, H. H., and Harry F. Guggenheim. Philip Guston. New York: The Solomon R. Guggengheim Museum, New York, 1962.
Hopkins, Henry T., ed. Illustrated Handbook of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. West Germany: Bruder Hartmann, 1965.
Tuchman, Maurice, editor. New York School, The First Generation: Paintings of the 1940s and 1950s. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1965.
John Marin: 1870-1953. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1970.
Tuchman, Maurice. Ten Years of Contemporary Art Council Acquisitions: Inaugurating The New Contemporary Art Galleries. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1973.
Meyer, James. Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971. Washington: National Gallery of Art; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.
Ashton, Dore. Philip Guston. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1960.
Woodstock Artists Association: One Hundred Years of Community and Art. Woodstock, NY: Woodstock Artists Association, 2019.
Wallock, Leonard, editor. New York, Culture Capital of the World, 1940-1965. New York: Rizzoli, 1988.
Copyright: © The Estate of Philip Guston

Related Unframed

Philip Guston
The Room1954-1955

On view:

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Artist or Maker: Philip Guston
Canada, active United States, 1913-1980
Title: The Room
Place Made: Canada
Date Made: 1954-1955
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 71 7/8 × 60 in. (182.56 × 152.4 cm)
Credit Line: Museum Purchase, Contemporary Art Council Fund
Accession Number: M.63.36
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Philip Guston’s paintings from the 1950s feature heavily built-up surfaces, with brighter, more vibrant colors clustered toward the center of the canvas, against a muted background. Guston was active in the New York School, a group of Abstract Expressionist painters working in New York in the 1950s. Unlike the so-called Action painters of the group, who employed dramatic gestures as they painted, Guston worked slowly and methodically, building up multiple layers of paint. He often described the artistic process as a mysterious one, arguing that one need not understand what the picture is or how exactly it comes into being to appreciate it.

Wall label, 2021.
Provenance: The artist (1913-1980); Virginia Dwan (1931-2022), Los Angeles; [Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles by 1960]; Sold in 1963 to LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Arnason, H. H., and Harry F. Guggenheim. Philip Guston. New York: The Solomon R. Guggengheim Museum, New York, 1962.
Hopkins, Henry T., ed. Illustrated Handbook of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. West Germany: Bruder Hartmann, 1965.
Tuchman, Maurice, editor. New York School, The First Generation: Paintings of the 1940s and 1950s. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1965.
John Marin: 1870-1953. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1970.
Tuchman, Maurice. Ten Years of Contemporary Art Council Acquisitions: Inaugurating The New Contemporary Art Galleries. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1973.
Meyer, James. Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959-1971. Washington: National Gallery of Art; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2016.
Ashton, Dore. Philip Guston. New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1960.
Woodstock Artists Association: One Hundred Years of Community and Art. Woodstock, NY: Woodstock Artists Association, 2019.
Wallock, Leonard, editor. New York, Culture Capital of the World, 1940-1965. New York: Rizzoli, 1988.
Copyright: © The Estate of Philip Guston