Cultivating Inspiration from other Artists: Philip Guston
A series of reflections as I watch documentaries and learn from other artists.
Something I think about often is the fact that creative people often look to people producing comparable or similar work for inspiration. This makes sense because you need to keep your finger on the pulse of what is happening in your field. I enjoy doing this when I’m already in a project and need to find ideas for new processes or materials. It’s exciting to see techniques and alternate processes emerging from experimentation!
However, when I am between projects or feeling stagnant, I prefer to look to artists who have worked in mediums and subjects that I would not gravitate towards in my own practice. It was actually fairly recently that I realized this may have come out of necessity more than intention. My first step is to open up Kanopy because I love art documentaries, but I would run out of printmaking films by the time I finished a meal (okay, maybe two) so I’ve had to look outside of my own preferred medium for content to feed that part of my brain. I can find things on YouTube if I am craving more, but I actually enjoy the limitation of having to choose something that may seem irrelevant. More often than not, I have the biggest aha moments from something an artist says more than their technique!
I’ve also found from being open in this way that there are many artists who have worked in lithography, etching, screen printing, and other printmaking processes, but their prints are rarely highlighted. Sometimes documentaries capture it, but often I find out from researching after the film. Even Philip Guston created several lithographs - to the point where there is a catalogue of them - and they weren’t even mentioned in the documentary I watched. I have always found it fascinating that printmaking has several processes and possibilities, yet it is not recognized the same way that painting, sculpture or drawing are despite its rich history. I managed to go through a whole studio art degree without taking a drawing or painting class outside of the into classes. By doing that, I discovered my drawing style through etching and carving. I accessed colour and brush strokes by mixing ink and creating tone through various materials and processes on the plate. I focused my art history electives on contemporary artists and learned identity politics and the evolution of painting once marginalized communities started to take up space. There’s something about a printmaking studio that just seems to bring people together. There is a process or medium for everyone. That is what I want to create. I dream of the day I am again surrounded by press beds, a ventilated etching space, and glass-top inking tables. Until it becomes a reality, I’ll continue finding ways to embody the studio environment wherever I can!
Philip Guston: Being the Medium
“I’m curious about what I’m going to do always. I’m just curious.”
“I feel I’ve opened up a Pandora’s box of imagery and structures and so on… It feels endless.”
“The most you can do is try.”
“Things are constantly opening up for me.”
These are all quotes by the artist Philip Guston from a documentary (Philip Guston: A Life Lived). He was a prolific painter and artist, and what I really resonated with was his willingness to become fully immersed in the process without knowing what the outcome would be. He talked about how he felt he was the medium for the rhythm and the work to emerge through. As an artist who would much rather be immersed in the making than preparing work for sale or for a show, I always enjoy hearing other perspectives on this sensation. There is something magical about looking at something the following day and somehow wondering how it came from you. It is fascinating to think that even artists who have had work in some of the most prestigious galleries and museums also see their work as somehow separate from themselves. It makes me feel more connected to my tendency to just keep following the next idea or inspiration without questioning where it will take me.
I enjoyed witnessing Guston as he walked through his paintings and remembered what he was trying to capture, whether it was an image, an everyday object or occurrence, or a texture. At one point, he was even talking about how he can connect particular conversations and memories to his different paintings. The quotes I shared above capture the essence of how I perceived his connection to his work. It also made me appreciate how authentic his paintings are because his contemporaries such as Jackson Pollock, and Franz Kline were doing very different work at the time. While they were heavily into emotional abstract expressionism, he was creating gestural figurative paintings. Guston was criticized even by his peers when he started his signature cartoon-style body of work, but kept moving forward. I admired this commitment to process and practice that would later inspire a new generation to create more raw and vulnerable work.
In addition to being ridiculed for the style of his work, he also created paintings that reflected the violence and racism that was evident in the United States throughout his lifetime. The return of his KKK figures in the 1960’s was not appreciated by his peers or critics. Most painters were not creating work that reflected reality at that time. However, the way he speaks of it feels like despite the white supremacy around him, he was able to see it for what it was, rather than being desensitized to it. In one clip where he was giving a talk to a group, he was asked what happened in a particular few years between 1962 and 1968, and he replied by saying he had been doing the same thing since he started in the 30s. He was just making work and allowing it to move through him. This matter of fact approach makes me see how some people really are processing their surroundings through their work as facts of the time. Art has always been political, and it is easy to see how capturing reality could be controversial considering the political landscape of today. Whether it’s music, visual art, writing, film, or any other creative expression, it provides a lens for us to examine the human condition and learn in an indirect way. Art makes us think, and good art leaves space for the audience to apply their own thoughts and experiences.
Another aspect of his practice that comes up a few times is that Guston would destroy paintings that were just “pictures” without saying anything or feeling like they resonated with him. There were also some examples of paintings where he had painted over the original figures or colours used. There is an energy of detachment that also feels related to the way he works as the medium with the work moving through him. With the quote, “Things are constantly opening up for me” he also said that the paintings still felt open, which makes it feel like all art is ephemeral in a way. Whether it physically is changed, destroyed, or just the context and relevance change, even the classics don’t hold the same exact imprint of importance over time. Art is fleeting and forever simultaneously.
