Lithograph on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/philip-guston-1231" aria-label="More by Philip Guston" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Philip Guston</a>
Coat
Presented by David and Renée McKee through the American Federation of Arts 1984
clothing and personal items
coat
objects
sea
seascapes and coasts
shoe
paper print lithograph
23 November 2019 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
23 November 2019 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
2019-11-23
Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, UK)
http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/
2019-11-23
Philip Guston - Locating the Image
Loan-out
Coat
image: 815 × 1008 mm
Presented by David and Renée McKee through the American Federation of Arts 1984
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guston-coat-p11079" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11079</span></a> <b>Coat</b> 1980 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guston-room-p11072" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11072</span></a>-<span>P11079</span>]
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<br/><span>P11072</span> <b>Room</b>
1980
<br/><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guston-east-side-p11073" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11073</span></a> <b>East Side</b>
<br/><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guston-rug-p11074" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11074</span></a> <b>Rug</b> 1980 
<br/><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guston-summer-p11075" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11075</span></a> <b>Summer</b> 1980
<br/><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guston-sea-p11076" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11076</span></a> <b>Sea</b> 1980
<br/><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guston-car-p11077" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11077</span></a> <b>Car</b> 1980
<br/><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guston-elements-p11078" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11078</span></a> <b>Elements</b> 1980
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<br/>Eight lithographs in range 18 × 28 (457 × 711) - 30 × 39 762 × 991), printed and published by Gemini GEL, Los Angeles
<br/>All inscribed ‘Philip Guston ‘80’ in various places and numbered ‘22/50’. Each also inscribed with the title and impressed with the printer's and publisher's stamp
<br/>Presented by David and Renée McKee through the American Federation of the Arts 1984
<br/>
<br/><span>P11072</span>-<span>P11079</span> form the complete set of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithographs</span></a> published by Gemini GEL as the first Guston <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portfolio" title="Glossary definition for 'Portfolio'"><span>portfolio</span></a> in 1980. <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guston-door-p07999" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07999</span></a> and <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/guston-painter-p77009" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P77009</span></a> are from the second and third portfolio respectively. Guston began collaborating with Gemini GEL in November 1979 working on transfer <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> and aluminium plates under the guidance of Serge Lozingot. Within two weeks Guston had executed sixteen transfer <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> and plates which were subsequently processed at Gemini GEL and returned to him in December. By this time Guston had completed twenty more images, ten on transfer paper and ten on plates. On 6 December he authorised the printing of fourteen images from the first group and, on 8 February, eleven images from the second group. Seventeen completed <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>editions</span></a> were signed at the beginning of April 1980. At the time of his death on 7 June 1980 seven editions remained unsigned; these are numbered by Gemini GEL and stamped with an estate stamp authorised by Guston's widow. <span>P77009</span> is one of these. The three portfolios contain eight, seven and eight lithographs respectively. The first two portfolios were published during Guston's lifetime.<br/><br/>Guston's lithographs incorporate the vocabulary of his late <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> which includes rusty railroad nails, old shoes and shoe heels, bare light bulbs, old automobiles, clothing and the smoking of cigarettes. In works made after 1969 Guston renounced his previous interest in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/abstract-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Abstract art'"><span>abstraction</span></a> in favour of ‘a world of tangible things, images, subjects, stories like the way art always was’ (‘Philip Guston Talking’, Philip Guston Paintings 1969–80, exhibition catalogue, Whitechapel Art Gallery, October–December 1982, p.50). These lithographs contain a mixture of reality, fantasy, <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/caricature" title="Glossary definition for 'Caricature'"><span>caricature</span></a> and naturalistic observation which characterises all of Guston's late work and which endows a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/b/biomorphic" title="Glossary definition for 'Biomorphic'"><span>biomorphic</span></a> celebration of life with both pathos and humour.
<br/>
<br/>The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> of some of the lithographs reflects Guston's earlier compositional concerns; ‘Room’ in particular can be directly compared with ‘Design for Queensbridge Housing Project’ 1939 (repr. Whitechapel Art Gallery exhibition catalogue, p.69). A number of the lithographs relate closely to late paintings in terms of title and composition; ‘Coat’, for example, relates to ‘Back View’ and ‘The Coat’ both of 1977 (both repr. ibid. pp.34, 35). The sensuous and rich surface of the late paintings has a direct correlative in the thick and waxy surface of the lithograph.
<br/>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1986
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-13T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
clothing and personal items coat objects sea seascapes and coasts shoe