After Timothy Taylor presented its fourth Philip Guston exhibition, which gathered together some of the artist’s finest paintings and drawings from the distinguished body of work made between 1969 and 1980, many of which had not been previously exhibited in Europe, the gallery is continuing its Philip Guston season.
Timothy Taylor announces the group exhibition Substance, which takes as its point of departure the “meat and potatoes” of Guston’s layered, visceral paintings [illustrated in Mark Leckey’s Cinema in the Round (2008)] and then goes on to explore the idea of substance in art from different points of view.
Through an eclectic mix of artists and works, the exhibition’s title and premise also acknowledges the quasi- greatest hits structure of the highly acclaimed Factory Records releases by New Order, Substance (1987) and Joy Division, Substance (1988). By exploring the possibilities of the term, this exhibition brings together a thoughtful compilation of substance art.
Guston’s influence, in particular his late paintings, continues to “cast a long shadow over the current landscape of contemporary art,” as Peter Benson Miller acknowledges in his recent publication. Because Guston was one of the few American painters to ‘defect’ to Europe – both by undertaking numerous residencies, as well as departing from the quintessential Postwar ‘American style’ – his significance is especially pertinent within a contemporary European context.
Guston not only effected key artists from a generation of (predominantly German) expressionist painters in the 1990s, but continues to have far reaching influence today, including younger artists in the gallery’s own stable, such as Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Volker Hüller and Eddie Martinez. Furthermore, it is timely to re-consider the provocative nature of Guston’s comic-influenced figuration.
Substance – Timothy Taylor Gallery – 10 June to 11 July 2015