hidden and strange

So today I went on a trip with some classmates to the Newark Museum in Newark, New jersey. We saw a painting show on South American Abstraction, which was interesting, but we also took plenty of time to see the 20th century painting wing. Their collection wasn't huge, but it provided a wide variety of differing american painters.

One of the paintings I responded to the most was one of Philip Guston's. I never used to be so into his paintings, but seeing his work evolvethroughout his life is something that has interested me way more than seeing the work of many other artists. Such a drastic change in style and content requires a great amount of reasoning, and I find this change fascinating.

His earlier abstract paintings brought in lots of money, and established his carreer as making paintings that were almost "too beautiful" for the time. Despite his popularity he switched to his more cartoon-like style which seemed to better suite, which I find to be magnificent.

After reading this article I find his work even more interesting yet, as the reasoning behind his transition was a lifelong battle. If your interested, check out this article. I found it very fulfilling:

http://www.aestheticrealism.org/philip_guston/philip_guston.html