Quotes by Philip Guston

Philip Guston

All these troubles revolve around the irritable mutual dependence of life and art – with their need and contempt for one another. Of necessity, to create is a temporary state and cannot be possessed.

Art

Needs

Trouble

But you begin to feel as you go on working that unless painting proves its right to exist by being critical and self-judging, it has no reason to exist at all – or is not even possible. The canvas is a court where the artist is prosecutor, defendant, jury and judge. Art without a trial disappears at a glance.

Art

Judging

Self

Do I really believe that? I make a mark, a few strokes, I argue with myself, not do I like or not, but is it true or not? Is that what I mean, is that what I want?

Believe

Mean

Want

Frustration is one of the great things in art. Satisfaction is nothing.

Art

Frustration

Satisfaction

I am a night painter, so when I come into the studio the next morning the delirium is over.

Creativity

Morning

Night

I do not see why the loss of faith in the known image and symbol in our time should be celebrated as a freedom. It is a loss from which we suffer, and this pathos motivates modern painting and poetry at its heart.

Heart

Loss

Suffering

I feel more as if I’m shaping something with my hands. I feel as if I’ve always wanted to get to that state. Like a blind man in a dark room had some clay, what would he make? I end up with 2 or 3 forms on a canvas, but it gets very physical for me.

Dark

Hands

Men

I go to the studio everyday because one day I may go and the Angel will be there. What if I don’t go and the Angel comes?

Angel

Everyday

What If

I have a studio in the country – in the woods – but my paintings look more real to me than what is outdoors. You walk outside; the rocks are inert; even the clouds are inert. It makes me feel a little better. But I do have a faith that it is possible to make a living thing, not a diagram of what I have been thinking: to posit with paint something living, something that changes each day.

Country

Nature

Real

I should like to paint like an man who has never seen a painting, but this man -myself – lives in a museum.

Men

Museums

Painting

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Abstract Painting

Air

Ambition

Angel

Arbitrary

Argument

Art

Artist

Begin Again

Believe

Block

Boredom

Canvas

Certain

Cezanne

Choices

Cities

Color

Country

Cows

Crafts

Creativity

Dark

Desire

Different

Drawing

Each Day

Education

Enormous

Everyday

Excellence

Eye

Fall

Finishing

Frustration

Hands

Hate

Heart

Hell

Ideas

Imagination

Inspirational

Judging

Kind

Light

Links

Long

Looks

Losing

Loss

The Future Blueprint

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The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

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The Autobiography

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The Relationship Therapist

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Quotes by Philip Guston

Philip Guston

All these troubles revolve around the irritable mutual dependence of life and art – with their need and contempt for one another. Of necessity, to create is a temporary state and cannot be possessed.

Do I really believe that? I make a mark, a few strokes, I argue with myself, not do I like or not, but is it true or not? Is that what I mean, is that what I want?

Frustration is one of the great things in art. Satisfaction is nothing.

I am a night painter, so when I come into the studio the next morning the delirium is over.

I do not see why the loss of faith in the known image and symbol in our time should be celebrated as a freedom. It is a loss from which we suffer, and this pathos motivates modern painting and poetry at its heart.

I feel more as if I’m shaping something with my hands. I feel as if I’ve always wanted to get to that state. Like a blind man in a dark room had some clay, what would he make? I end up with 2 or 3 forms on a canvas, but it gets very physical for me.

I go to the studio everyday because one day I may go and the Angel will be there. What if I don’t go and the Angel comes?

I should like to paint like an man who has never seen a painting, but this man -myself – lives in a museum.

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Topics by Philip Guston

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The Behaviour Diary

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