Philip Guston depicted ‘the banality of evil’ but galleries in the UK and US fear his work could be misinterpreted
Best known for his abstract art, Philip Guston also dipped into figurative painting with a repeating motif of white-hooded Ku Klux Klan members. Now these images have caused the postponement of a major retrospective to honour him – and a heated row within the art world.
Four institutions – the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Tate in London – have said their Philip Guston Now exhibition won’t open before 2024 because it needs to be framed by “additional perspectives and voices”. They want to wait until the “message of social and racial justice” at the centre of his work “can be more clearly interpreted”.
