Synopses & Reviews
In Telling Stories, David Kaufmann focuses on Philip Guston's controversial works of the late 1960s and 1970s and clarifies the narratives that underlie these provocative paintings. Guston, best known during the 1950s for strictly abstract work, surprised the art world in 1970 when he began to show willfully clumsy and often beautiful "cartoons"--figurative depictions (dubbed "Hoods" by the artist) of what looked like members of the Ku Klux Klan. Kaufmann looks closely at the early critical reception of these works--largely dismissive--to see what the painter was actually doing. He goes on to interpret Guston's later career through the critics' changing views in order to investigate the odd alchemy of artists and their audiences. Grounding his historical approach in careful readings of the paintings, Kaufmann pays close attention to Guston's intense and complicated relationship to Judaism. At the same time, by situating Guston in the context of the fashions of the New York art world, Kaufmann provides unique insight into the workings of that world at the moment when artistic modernism began to fade.
Synopsis
David Kaufmann focuses on Philip Guston's controversial works of the late 1960s and 1970s and clarifies the narratives that underlie these provocative paintings. Guston, best known during the 1950s for strictly abstract work, shocked the art world in 1970 when he began to show figurative depictions of what looked like members of the Ku Klux Klan. Kaufmann looks at the early critical reception of these works--largely dismissive--and compares it to the critics' discussions of them a decade later, when Pop art, allegory, and politically explicit works had not only become acceptable but were the new vogue. Grounding his historical approach in careful readings of the paintings, Kaufmann also explores Guston's intense and complicated relationship to Judaism.
Synopsis
In Telling Stories, David Kaufmann focuses on Philip Guston's controversial figurative paintings of the late 1960s and 1970s. He looks at the early critical reception of these works to see what the artist was actually doing and, at another level, to investigate the odd alchemy of artists and their audiences. Grounding his historical approach in careful readings of the paintings, Kaufmann pays close attention to Guston's intense and complicated relationship to Judaism. At the same time, by situating Guston in the context of the fashions of the New York art world, Kaufmann provides unique insight into the workings of that world at the moment when the strictures of artistic modernism began to fade.
Synopsis
"I have never seen a book that deals so extensively and usefully with the aesthetic and critical climate surrounding Guston, the allegorical interpretation of his work, or the role of his Jewishness in his art and thinking. Telling Stories is an original and stimulating contribution."and#151;Clark Coolidge
About the Author
David Kaufmann is Associate Professor of English at George Mason University and is the author of The Business of Common Life: Novels and Classical Economics between Revolution and Reform.