Page 35 - Studio International - February 1965

Philip Guston

satori which goes beyond language and reasoning and Teilhard de Chardin, a great apotheosis of mind. A
which bursts out in one's consciousness by overstep­ painter of esprit, yes, and also a painter of intuition,
ping the limits of consciousness .... As your con­ ·overstepping the limits of consciousness.·
centration goes on you will find the koan altogether A modern painter who cannot (even if he tries, which
devoid of taste. that is. without an intellectual clue he sometimes does), reverse the procedure of time
whereby to fathom its content. ... When all of a and avoid its consequences .... A modern painter
sudden something flashes out in your mind. its light will who has inquired incessantly: what can be done
illumine the entire universe.') without in painting? Or. what is essential? ... A
With the events come the question. No painting is modern painter who acknowledges the double-need:
unreasoned, unchallenged. Each is a clarification of the for fantasy, where space is not an envelope but a
last. The metamorphoses implicit in abstract painting medium, a one-ness such as Poe envisioned, and for
are of central importance. We might say that in his intuitional speculation .... A modern painter who can
oeuvre, Guston has gone from form to metaform. A have only the modern experience (the 'real' experience
vital discovery is the similarity of spaces and forms. The of Werther gazing for hours at a mountainous prospect
continuity of matter, though, is not the final statement. cannot be his). . . . A modern painter for whom
New Place. 1964
76 X 80 in. for Guston believes in evolution and envisions. with painting is authentically a way of life, a way to life. ■
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