Filed under: Art World, DC, Features | Tags: American Academy in Rome, Giorgio de Chirico, Giotto, Marlborough Gallery, Matthew Smith, Philip Guston, Phillips Collection, Piero della Francesca, Rome
TOP: Philip Guston, Pantheon, 1973. Oil on panel. Private Collection, Woodstock, NY. BOTTOM: Philip Guston, Rome, 1971. Oil on paper. Images: © Estate of Philip Guston; courtesy McKee Gallery, New York, NY.
Philip Guston, celebrated abstract expressionist of the New York school, returned to the American Academy in Rome (where he was a fellow in 1949) as resident artist in 1970-71 on the heels of his poorly-received show at Marlborough Gallery in New York, which introduced his controversial return to figurative painting. Currently on display at the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Philip Guston, Roma exhibits the works produced by Guston during his six-month Rome residency — arguably the most creatively fertile period of his career — and presents the artist’s complex visual dialogue with Italian art and culture through the symbolic shorthand that came to characterize his later work. More images after the jump. —Matthew Smith, DC contributor
