City Limits is a 1969 painting by Phillip Guston, part of his “hoods” series of representational works. These paintings depicted cartoonish versions of Klansmen engaged in various mundane activities.[1] While other works in this series (i.e. The Studio) featured the artist himself under the guise of a KKK member, City Limits provides a more straightforward depiction.[2] The child-like presentation has been described as enabling “a simple account of the simple-mindedness of violence.”[3] It is influenced by his early work with Mexican Muralists[4] and was part of his polarizing abandonment of Abstract Expressionism as a genre at his 1970 Marlborough Gallery exhibition.[5] It is featured in Philip Guston Now, a traveling retrospective that generated controversy when it was postponed in 2020.[6]
References
- ^ Meyer, Lily (2022-05-24). "Don't Look Away From Philip Guston's Cartoonish Paintings of Klansmen". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
- ^ "Philip Guston. City Limits. 1969 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
- ^ Emelife, Aindrea (2020-09-28). "Philip Guston's KKK images force us to stare evil in the face – we need art like this". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
- ^ Schwabsky, Barry (2022-07-28). "Philip Guston's Philosophy of Doubt". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
- ^ Greenberger, Alex (2020-09-30). "Philip Guston's KKK Paintings: Why an Abstract Painter Returned to Figuration to Confront Racism". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
- ^ Holland, Oscar (2020-10-01). "Artists slam decision to postpone exhibition of Philip Guston's KKK paintings". CNN. Retrieved 2023-07-16.