Joshua Lieberman

Guston is treated with contempt: Philip Guston Now reviewed

The canonical American painter is exhibited, censored and chastised at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts – much like the Nazis did to ‘Degenerate Art’

Couple in Bed, 1977, by Philip Guston. Credit: The Art Institute of Chicago, through prior bequest of Frances W. Pick, and memorial gift from her daughter, Mary P. Hines, 1989.435 © The Estate of Philip Guston, courtesy Hauser & Wirth
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  • Philip Guston Now

    Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, until 11 September

Philip Guston is hard to dislike. The most damning critique levied against the canonical mid-century American painter is that he is too uncontroversial, his appeal too broad, his approach altogether too winsome. None of that stopped the team behind Philip Guston Now – a travelling mega-survey of his work, which will reach Tate Modern in 2023 – from announcing otherwise.

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