Untitled (Red Spot)

…what kind of man am I, sitting at home, reading magazines, going into a frustrated fury about everything–and then going to my studio to adjust a red to blue. I thought there must be some way I could do something about it.
—Philip Guston

Untitled (Red Spot) succinctly encapsulates Philip Guston’s reimagined world as a radical evolution from the gestural abstraction so evident in his earlier works. The painting relies on physical brushstrokes and a limited color palette of pink, red, and black, borrowed from earlier works. This choice of color juxtaposes hues associated with humanity’s flesh, blood and passion against the plain white and black tones to depict a simplistic figure, meant to represent a Klansman, defined by a bold, black outline and further embellished with a number of physical red and black brushstrokes. Pushed to the foreground of the image and rendered in flat perspective, Guston’s figure denies the viewer a point of entry to the intimate space. The pink background is adorned with the impasto paint application which provides a strong sense of dynamism to the work. While the majority of the painting thoughtfully plays with the representational, vestiges of the artist’s earlier Abstract Expressionist works still exist within the red, painterly strokes and hints of impasto throughout the painting.
Executed in 1969 following the Guston’s two-year hiatus from painting, the present lot is an early example of the figurative style which would come to define the last decade of his artistic production. It marks the dramatic shift away from the Abstract Expressionist style for which he became famous in the 1950s; while Guston’s exploration into the figurative was shocking to viewers at the time, these works are now considered his most significant canonical contribution. Tackling themes such as the evils of humanity, this work also remains incredibly relevant in our modern day, even though it was created over fifty years ago. Untitled (Red Spot) is a masterful painting that exemplifies Guston’s embrace of art-making and his willingness to confront the danger and evils of life head-on.
Guston enjoyed a prolific career and is considered a leading force in the shift away from Abstract Expressionism toward Neo-Expressionism. Beginning his artistic career in the 1930s, he found early success working as a mural painter for the WPA Federal Art Project. While creating these government-funded murals, Guston utilized his classic studio training to develop certain narratives and scales to which he would eventually return later in life. Drawing on influences such as Giorgio de Chirico’s metaphysical spaces and Pablo Picasso’s heavyset forms, Guston created images that were meant to explore the evil side of humanity, notably the prevalence of the Ku Klux Klan. The artist first depicted a hooded Klansman figure in murals painted during the 1930s which focused on the widespread violence against African Americans. The Klansman became a metaphor for the politically charged figures of oppression and the artist reiterated them as reoccurring motifs in his murals up until the mid-1940s. In the 1950s, Guston moved away from mural painting and achieved great success as a first-generation Abstract Expressionist. Working alongside his friends Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, he set out to discover what he could create when unfettered by the influences of the outside world. Utilizing a limited color palette of mainly black, white, gray, blue, and red, he applied paint in thick, organic, gestural strokes, often grouped in the center of his compositions.
In 1967, Guston grew frustrated with the lack of true expression fostered by the Abstract Expressionists and decided to take a hiatus from painting. He moved north to Woodstock, New York and lived in relative isolation for a number of years. Reflecting on this period, Guston remarked, “I was feeling split, schizophrenic. The war, what was happening to America, the brutality of the world, what kind of man am I, sitting at home, reading magazines, going into a frustrated fury about everything–and then going to my studio to adjust a red to blue. I thought there must be some way I could do something about it.” (P. Guston, quoted in J. Talmer, ‘“Creation” is for Beauty Parlors,’ New York Post, 9 April 1977). He returned to painting intent on creating works that explored the medium of painting from a crucial new angle. To do so, Guston reverted back to the figurative style used in his mural paintings decades earlier. However, these narrative paintings moved away from his classical studio training and towards a simplified aesthetic.
Untitled (Red Spot) is one of the earliest paintings from this new era of artistic production and reflects a pivotal moment of change and self-discovery in the artist’s life. This painting was created as both a personal expression and an exploration into the artist’s relationship with the world around him. To Guston, the figure of the Klansman was meant to shed light on the political violence of the 1960s and 1970s while also serving as an ironic self-portrait. Speaking about the Klansman series, he once said, “They are self-portraits, I perceive myself as being behind the hood… The idea of evil fascinated me… I almost tried to imagine that I was living with the Klan. What would it be like to be evil? To plan, to plot.” (P. Guston quoted in R. Storr, Philip Guston, New York, 1986, p. 56).
In 1970, Guston exhibited paintings of his hooded figures during a ground-breaking show at the Marlborough Gallery in New York City. While many were shocked at such an extreme departure from his Abstract Expressionist works, others, including de Kooning, saw these paintings as a true freedom of expression. Through painting works like Untitled (Red Spot), Guston was able to rediscover his own image, express himself freely, and launch himself into the fervent production of his mature period. He also inspired an entire generation of artists with works like the present lot.
Referring to his previous style of artistic production, Guston once claimed “American Abstract art is a lie, a sham, a cover up for a poverty of spirit. A mask to mask the fear of revealing oneself. A lie to cover up how bad one can be … What a sham! Abstract art hides it, hides the life, a fake! Don’t! Let it show!” (P. Guston, quoted in M. Mayer, Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston, London, 1991, p. 70). Untitled (Red Spot) removes the mask and confronts the world’s evils head-on, thereby promoting self-discovery. This rare, early painting in his iconic style marks Guston’s astonishing shift away from the abstract towards a more provocative and honest form of artistic creation.