Night Studio

Quite a interesting prospective of an Artist. Helps frame him in the times, 60's and 70's. Tells of a young woman (the author/daughter) struggles with feminism and and how her Mother was sadly stuck in 40's and 50's, "be a good wife and don't say anything" Back to Phillip, this tells equally about the real artist/creative struggle. I don't give him a free pass for all his problems, but this book really lets you know how flawed the "art business" really is. The book made it possible to look back at the changing times and to relive them as I remember them as an Artist and Father of a little girl.

Night Studio is a wonderful book. Let me start with what it is not: it is not an art historical survey of Philip Guston's career; it is not a philosophical essay on the meaning of his art. Nor do you have to be an all-out fan of Philip Guston's to read it. On the other hand, it is an almost day-to-day account of a daughter's life in the shadow of her father who happened to be one of the greatest American painters of the XXth century. The author managed to write a moving book, describing the overwhelming and complex personality of her father, the conflicts, the anguish, the contradictions, the closeness and, at the same time, the aloofness that made her life next to Guston so rewarding but also so frustrating. You can sense the admiration of a daughter towards her father, but also the weariness of having to fight a formidable rival, art, to gain some space in the life of this larger-than-life father. This is a book that you only drop when reaching the last page.

Musa Mayer (Guston's daughter) has undertaken a brave and cathartic task in writing a biography of her father, a self-obsessed painter. Philip Guston could well be regarded as the last artist of an era inasmuch as Gustav Mahler could be regarded as the last composer of classical symphonies. With Guston one comes to the end of painting. What started with Cezanne ends here. Guston knew he wanted to paint in the tradition of those before him and paid a heavy price in order to achieve it. Mayer's account is of a sometimes loving more often absent father who disappointed his daughter so much so that this book is also an attempt at healing wounds. Guston appears as a larger than life figure with equally large depressive states through which into the small hours he would struggle with his canvases. Mayer is neither maudlin nor sentimental and for a few pages here and there gives crystalline insights into her father's work that any artist should appreciate. This then is not your typical soup to nuts biography but rather a personal view of Guston as seen through the pained eyes of one trying to purge as well as admire.

As a painter, consumed by my own work at times, this book was such a treat. A wonderful and compelling look at one of the most influential artists of my career thus far. so emotional and real.

"Night Studio" is not only a compelling portrait of a great artist, but also a riveting story about life with an artist consumed and obsessed by his work. Plus, there's lots of cool pictures. This is NOT a dry biography.