When Philip Guston stopped painting in an abstract expressionist style and adopted a new, faux-naïve look in 1970, art world response was so negative that the artist relocated to Rome for the better part of the following year. ‘Pittore,’ part of a major show of Guston’s late work at Hauser & Wirth Gallery, expresses some of the anxiety that Guston must have felt as a painter, as well as his need to change to a representational style to engage in a more overt way with the politics of the day. Here, the artist lies awake in bed at night, his paint and brush beside him. Smoking, his eyes bloodshot, and with a clock rising behind him like a moon dominating a landscape, the pressure is palpable. (On view in Chelsea. Proof of vaccination, photo ID and masks are required).
