May 22, 2018 - Sale 2479

Sale 2479 - Lot 55

Unsold
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
PHILIP GUSTON
Rug.

Lithograph on Rives BFK, 1980. 495x737 mm; 19 1/2x29 inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated and numbered 47/50 in pencil, lower margin. Printed and published by Gemini, G.E.L., Los Angeles, with the blind stamps lower right. A very good impression with strong contrasts.

By the mid-1960s Guston (1913-1980) had moved away from Abstract Expressionism toward more figural, representational art (called the Cartoon Paintings). Much of this later work is reminsicent of still lifes, landscapes and figural groups. In some cases there are references to the fight for racial and social justices that stirred during the 1960s/1970s. Despite this later departure to representational art, Guston still held onto an interest in abstraction that had permeated his earlier career, demonstrated by the abstract patterns that make up the rug and floorboards in the current work. Gemini 876.