Screening Room: ‘Philip Guston: A Life Lived’

Filmed in 1971 at his Woodstock studio and during his 1980 retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, this iconic documentary provides an intimate look at the visionary American painter Philip Guston (1913-1980) as he speaks candidly about his philosophy of painting and the psychological motivation for his work.

Within the exhibition ‘Philip Guston. Transformation’, Hauser & Wirth will present two bodies of work from different periods, abstract (1952-64) and figurative (1968-1977) that together show the depth and complexity of his personal iconography. Available to experience in person and online, the significant collection of 19 drawings and paintings reveals Guston’s complete commitment to direct experience, moving between a pictorial language relating to his studio and painting tools, to contemplative motifs of his wife, the poet Musa McKim, and their shared lives together. These deeply personal works transcend everyday experience to present an intimate vision of Guston’s creative process and unique artistic freedom.
The presentation in St. Moritz is part of an ongoing series of global exhibitions by Hauser & Wirth since 2016, including: ‘Philip Guston. Painter 1957-1967’, New York, 2016; ‘Philip Guston. Laughter in the Dark, Drawings from 1971 & 1975’, New York and London, 2017; ‘Philip Guston A Painter’s Forms, 1950-1979’, Hong Kong; ‘Resilience. Philip Guston in 1971’, Los Angeles, 2019-2020; ‘Philip Guston. What Endures’, Virtual Reality, 2020.
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Visit this page from Friday 18 December, 12 am EST – Sunday 20 December, 11:59 pm EST to watch the film. ‘Philip Guston: A Life Lived’ was directed by Michael Blackwood and produced by Michael Blackwood Productions.