Table at Night
Artist
Philip Guston
(American, 1913 - 1980)
Date1975
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFramed: 60 1/2 x 79 1/4 x 1/4 in. (153.7 x 201.3 x 0.6 cm)
ClassificationsPAINTINGS
Credit LineMusa Guston Bequest
Terms
Object number93.3
Description On View
On viewCollections
CopyrightPresumed copyright: the artist or the artist's representative/heir(s).
Label TextPhilip Guston's painting style underwent three significant shifts during his long career. In the 1930s and 1940s, he created figurative compositions that dealt with social injustice. In the 1950s and 1960s, he painted abstract compositions characterized by their richly painted surfaces and nervous brushwork.
In the late 1960s, Guston began to paint representational subjects again, but used an exaggerated, comic book style. These paintings from the last decade of his life are idiosyncratic self-portraits; Guston depicts himself as the disembodied head and eye. Much of the work from this period describes the artist's observations of his own efforts in the studio against the backdrop of an extremely tumultuous century. Table at Night, however, is a more intimate view of the painter's life, during a break for a quiet meal.
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