May 2022
On Painting Philip Guston’s Studio
On Painting was a collaboration between Art Programme and Melbourne School of Contemporary Art.
Bill Hawkins and Jan Bryant instigated discussions on various ideas in painting using quotes from Philip Guston as catalysts. There was an open discussion that included the invitation for participants to presentf their own work.
Divided into 5 parts: (1) positioning Guston / questioning art history methodolgies / Georges Didi-Huberman; (2) political aesthetics / Jacques Jacques Rancière / issues surrounding the postponment of Guston’s large retrospective originally planned for 2020 and identity politics; (3) Gu ston’s rejection of abstraction and theories of Mimesis; (4) moods, humour and melancholy / Guston’s allegorical claim for his late works / Walter Benjamin’s theory of allegory; (5) the future of contemporary art under current economic structures (neoliberalism) / Wendy Brown / David Harvey /
Other painters referenced: Pierre Alechinsky / Fra Angelica / Belkis Ayón / Francis Bacon / Angela Brennan / Chardin / Jean Fautrier / Piero della Francesca / El Greco / D Harding / Martin Kippenberger /Julia Koether / Dana Lok / Helen Johnson / José Clemente Orozco / Mathilde Rosier / Diego Rivera / Georgette Seabrooke /
Bill Hawkins and Jan Bryant instigated discussions on various ideas in painting using quotes from Philip Guston as catalysts. There was an open discussion that included the invitation for participants to presentf their own work.
Divided into 5 parts: (1) positioning Guston / questioning art history methodolgies / Georges Didi-Huberman; (2) political aesthetics / Jacques Jacques Rancière / issues surrounding the postponment of Guston’s large retrospective originally planned for 2020 and identity politics; (3) Gu ston’s rejection of abstraction and theories of Mimesis; (4) moods, humour and melancholy / Guston’s allegorical claim for his late works / Walter Benjamin’s theory of allegory; (5) the future of contemporary art under current economic structures (neoliberalism) / Wendy Brown / David Harvey /
Other painters referenced: Pierre Alechinsky / Fra Angelica / Belkis Ayón / Francis Bacon / Angela Brennan / Chardin / Jean Fautrier / Piero della Francesca / El Greco / D Harding / Martin Kippenberger /Julia Koether / Dana Lok / Helen Johnson / José Clemente Orozco / Mathilde Rosier / Diego Rivera / Georgette Seabrooke /
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