Arshile GorkyChild's Companions
Art Bridges Collection
Philip GustonCigar
About
Guston’s hooded, cigar-smoking character is at once ominous and whimsical, appearing in a number of his later works. For decades, Guston created works of Abstract Expressionism. The graphic, figurative style of Cigar is a revolution in the artist’s technique. However, echoes of his earlier paintings are noticeable in this image’s expressive brushwork. This simple seeming figure is in fact complex, and charged with personal meaning.
Cigar recalls the Ku Klux Klan members that the artist saw in the Southern California of his youth, and Guston subverts the terror that they inspired with this buffoonish lampoon of human vice. The hooded figure may also be a critical examination of the artist’s self-image.
Guston was a heavy drinker and smoker who lamented, “I perceive myself as being behind a hood.”
Artist
Philip Guston
Dimensions
52 × 60 1/8 in. (132.1 × 152.7 cm)
Credit Line
Art Bridges
Date
1969
Medium
Oil on canvas
Object Number
AB.2017.5
Signed
verso: [signed, titled], 1969
Provenance
to Estate of the Artist, 1980; (McKee Gallery, New York, NY); purchased by Stefan T. Edlis, Chicago, IL, 2001; to (Sotheby’s, New York, NY), May 14, 2008, lot 65; purchased by Private Collection; to (Sotheby’s, New York, NY), May 18, 2017, sale N09761, lot 11; purchased by Art Bridges, TX, 2017
Artwork Gallery
1/8
Partner Story
An innovative new exhibition at Missoula Art Museum
In 2018, the borrowed Philip Guston’s Cigar (1969) as a single object loan to to hang in their collection galleries. Once the work was in the museum – and through conversations with Art Bridges – Cigar inspired the museum team to invite five nationally known artists with ties to their region to respond to Guston’s painting. The result, , was a special exhibition on display in Missoula from January 25 through September 21, 2019. It featured Guston’s canvas alongside new works by artists , John Buck, Richard Notkin, , and .
