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Collections

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
  • 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.