"If you push it, it feels good; I don’t know what it is. It must have something to do with kinesthesia. I feel now that I am painting I'm not drawing anything, or even representing non-objective art. You know, you can represent abstract art, too, as well as heads figures, nudes. A lot of abstract artists are just representational painters, you know that. And a lot of figurative artists are very abstract. I don't feel as if I'm doing that. 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. I always thought I am a very spiritual man, not interested in paint, and now I discover myself to be very physical and very involved with matter. I want to be involved with how heavy things are, a balloon, how light things are, things levitating, pushing forms, make me feel as if my hand is pushing in a head, bulges out here and pushes there."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
pp. 73-75
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philip_Guston
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Philip Guston
Philip Guston (1913-07-27 – 1980-06-07) was a notable painter of the New York School, which included many of the Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning. In the 1960's Guston helped to lead the transition from Modernism to Post-Modernism in painting, abandoning the so-called 'pure abstraction' of Abstract Expressionism in favor of more cartoon-like renderings of various personal symbols and objects.
39 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Philip Guston →
Related Quotes
"To will a new form is inacceptable, because will builds distortion. Desire too, is incomplete and arbitrary. These st…"
"Painting and sculpture are very archaic forms. It's the only thing left in our industrial society where an individual…"
"I have two thoughts [on the question of interviewer Joseph S. Trovato: 'Were the projects a good thing for American a…"
"But you begin to feel as you go on working that unless painting proves its right to exist by being critical and self-…"
"All these troubles revolve around the irritable mutual dependence of life and art – with their need and contempt for …"
"I have a studio in the country - in the woods – but my paintings look more real to me than what is outdoors. You walk…"
"[On the question: 'What was your main stylistic influence up to this time']: The Renaissance chiefly - Piero, Mantegn…"
"To answer your first question - most significantly the [ Federal Art Project ] project was my training ground in the …"
"There are so many things to paint in the world – in the cities – so much to see. Does art need to represent this vari…"
"I mean that the things I felt and that I enjoyed about certain painters of the past that I liked, that inspired me, l…"