“Then you learn about composition, you learn about old masters, you form certain ideas about structure. But the inhuman activity of trying to make some kind of jump or leap, where , the painting is always saying, 'What do you want from me? I can only be a painting.' You have to go from part to part, but you shouldn't see yourself go from part to part, that's the whole point.” WantTryingKindI CanIdeasWholeFormCertainEducationPaintingMastersActivityStructureLeapCompositionInhuman Author:Philip Guston
“Where do you put a form? It will move all around, bellow out and shrink, and sometimes it winds up where it was in the first place. But at the end it feels different, and it had to make the voyage. I am a moralist and cannot accept what has not been paid for, or a form that has not been lived through.” FeelsFirstsDifferentEndsSometimesMovingFormAcceptingWindPaidShrinksVoyagesMoralist Book:Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations Source: Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations
“Usually I draw in relation to my painting, what I am working on at the time. On a lucky day a surprising balance of forms and spaces will appear... making itself, the image taking hold. This in turn moves me toward painting - anxious to get to the same place, with the actuality of paint and light.” LightMovingFormTurnsSpacePaintingBalanceLuckyDrawsRelationPaintAnxiousSurprisingActualityMethodologyLucky Day Book:The drawings of Philip Guston Source: The drawings of Philip Guston
“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
“To will a new form is unacceptable, because will builds distortion. Desire, too, is incomplete and arbitrary. These strategies, however intimate they might become, must especially be removed to clear the way for something else.” WayMightFormDesireClearStrategyIntimateArbitraryIncompleteDistortion Author:Philip Guston
“Painting and sculpture are very archaic forms. It's the only thing left in our industrial society where an individual alone can make something with not just his own hands, but brains, imagination, heart maybe.” HeartHandsFormIndividualLeftImaginationBrainPaintingSculpture Book:Philip Guston, 1975-1980: Private and Public Battles Source: Philip Guston, 1975-1980: Private and Public Battles
