Think Pink (and Guston)!

Philip Guston, Untitled (Wall), 1971. Oil on paper. Private Collection. © Estate of Philip Guston; image courtesy McKee Gallery, New York, NY

PINK!
This is the first reaction of most visitors as they enter Philip Guston, Roma. Some can’t handle it, just too much pink. Personally, I don’t care for pink, but I love these paintings. A pink was chosen as the 2011 Color of the Year by Pantone, so you could say the Phillips is leading in trends.

Something to take into consideration:  When white is added to a color to lighten it, we usually call it by the name of the original color. Blue becomes light blue, or pale blue, but it is still blue. However, black becomes not light black but gray, and red becomes not pale red but pink. So these Gustons are not pink but red paintings.

RED!
The paintings are composed of primarily three colors–red, black and white. When artist Chuck Close was asked about this palette during a panel discussion here, he said that Guston’s friends used to joke that Philip went to the art store, and there was a sale on red, black, and white.

It is a handsome color combination, used for centuries. Guston had used it extensively in his paintings exhibited at Marlborough Galleries just before his stay in Rome. There is also a noticeable use in his earlier abstractions, frequently as pink. Come to think of it, a number of big macho abstract expressionists used pink. (See our Gottlieb Seer or Equinox, which also has the alchemical trinity at the bottom). It was as if pink was in the air.

Adolph Gottlieb, Equinox, 1963. Oil on canvas, 90 x 84 in. Acquired 1963. The Phillips Collection

Although Guston mixed black with white, or red with white, he never mixed all three together, for there is no violet in these paintings. Sometimes he painted black on top of red, or red on top of black, but the three colors mushed together would have introduced a different note, that of violet. His dark red comes from red straight up, rather than from the addition of black.

There are theories as to why Guston focused on red, but maybe it was just his favorite color. In the catalogue there are reproduced two pages of a letter he wrote; it is written in red ballpoint ink on blue lined yellow legal paper, an absolutely hideous color combination. But a red ink pen? He would have had to search that out from all the easily available blues and blacks. Red probably did gather certain meanings for him, but if so, he never revealed them. There are just some things you have to keep within the safe red chambers of your heart.

-Ianthe Gergel, Museum Assistant