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Painter, 1959
Oil on canvas

Purchase with funds from the
National Endowment for the Arts, 74.118

Philip Guston viewed his paintings as arenas
in which to act and as records of spontaneous
gestures. Many of Guston's abstractions have
visible associations, however. Here, the central
black form suggests both an easel and a figure
in motion. The title suggests that this might
be the artist, involved in passionate, improvi-
sational painting.