Bottles, 1977 – Oil on Canvas
Bottles, 1977
There is a variety of cool art currently on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla in San Diego. But as far as pushing paint on the surface of a canvas, nothing comes near this painting by Philip Guston ( 1913 – 1980 ). And don’t get me wrong, a few yards away there is a beautiful little Mark Rothko that is not too shabby either.
After contemplating Bottles for several minutes, and making a sketch of it, I walked around the room to see the other artworks.
This painting was in a spacious gallery with many other contemporary “important” pieces, including a marble sculpture by Ai Weiwei.
I went back to the Guston, and when the security guard looked in my direction, I remarked: “Best painting currently on display in this museum”. He said he agreed with me, even though his focus as an artist was music, and he really couldn’t articulate why he liked the painting.
“Bottles” is not a particularly chirpy piece. In it, Philip Guston was confronting his alcoholism: he wore his addiction on his sleeve, creating many many variations on this painful theme.
It is a beautiful work of art nonetheless. If you like painting, that is.
When the security guard looked in my direction, making eye contact with me, I told him: “Best painting among all the ones currently on display in this museum”.
We can see an accomplished artist having fun with painting, not unlike a child playing with his first set of color crayons. The traces of the wet on wet process, each brush stroke visible, the messy interaction of the different colors in the background, everything happening at the same time. It’s both a powerful and humble painting.
If you walked away feeling jealous, wishing you had done it, it’s ok. Good painting will do that to you.