“When I see people making 'abstract' painting, I think it's just a dialogue and a dialogue isn't enough. That is to say, there is you painting and this canvas. I think there has to be a third thing; it has to be a trialogue.” PeopleThinkingEnoughPaintingThirdsDialogueAbstractCanvasAbstract Painting Author:Philip Guston
“Sometimes I scrape off a lot. You have on the floor, like cow dung in the field, this big glob of paint... and it's just a lot of inert matter, inert paint. Then I look back at the canvas, and it's not inert - it's active, moving and living.” LooksSometimesMatterBigsMovingFieldsPaintActiveCowsCanvasDissatisfaction Author:Philip Guston
“The canvas you are working on modifies the previous ones in an unending, baffling chain which never seems to finish. What sympathy is demanded of the viewer? He is asked to 'see' the future links.” SeemsChainsLinksCanvasViewersFinishingUnending Book:Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations Source: Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations
“The things I felt... about certain painters of the past that... inspired me, like Cezanne and Manet... that complete losing of oneself in the work to such an extent that the work itself... felt as if a living organism was posited there on the canvas, on this surface... That's truly... the act of creation.” IfsPastCertainFeltCreationMastersLosingInspiredOneselfSurfacePainterCanvasOrganismsLiving OrganismsCezanne Author:Philip Guston
“That's what I mean by something grips in a canvas. The moment that happens you are then sucked into the whole thing. Like some kind of rhythm.” KindMeanWholeMomentsHappensRhythmCanvas Author:Philip Guston
“The canvas is a court where the artist is prosecutor, defendant, jury and judge. Art without a trial disappears at a glance.” ArtArtistJudgingCourtDisappearTrialsCanvasGlancesJuryProsecutor Book:Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations Source: Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations
“I feel more as if I'm shaping something with my hands. I feel as if I've always wanted to get to that state. Like a blind man in a dark room had some clay, what would he make? I end up with 2 or 3 forms on a canvas, but it gets very physical for me.” IfsMenFeelsEndsStatesHandsWantedFormDarkRoomsBlindCanvasClayBlind ManDark Room Author:Philip Guston
“But you begin to feel as you go on working that unless painting proves its right to exist by being critical and self-judging, it has no reason to exist at all - or is not even possible. The canvas is a court where the artist is prosecutor, defendant, jury and judge. Art without a trial disappears at a glance.” FeelsArtSelfReasonArtistPaintingJudgingGoes OnProveCourtCriticalDisappearTrialsNo ReasonCanvasGlancesJuryProve ItProsecutor Author:Philip Guston
