Much like one of his favorite authors, Samuel Beckett, Guston makes something serious, pathetic, and funny out of raw violence. Here the human body has been reduced to a jumble of awkward part-objects: fragmented legs on the left and hairy wrists and hands in the middle. The hands wield trash-can lids as shields, defending the territory behind them from an army of encroaching limbs. The Street evokes the violence that upset both New York City and the globe during the 1960s and 1970s. As Guston said, "When the 1960s came along I was feeling split, schizophrenic. The war, what was happening in America, the brutality of the world. . . . I knew ahead of me a road was laying. A very crude, inchoate road."
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:The Street
Artist:Philip Guston (American (born Canada), Montreal 1913–1980 Woodstock, New York)
Date:1977
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:69 1/8 in. × 9 ft. 2 7/8 in. (175.6 × 281.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace and Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Saul Gifts, Gift of George A. Hearn, by exchange, and Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1983
Inscription: Signed (lower right): Philip Guston; signed, dated, and inscribed (verso): PHILIP GUSTON / "THE STREET" 1977 / OIL ON CANVAS "69x110 3/4"
[David McKee Gallery, New York, 1977–79; sold in 1979 to HHK Foundation]; HHK Foundation for Contemporary Art, Inc., Milwaukee (1979–83; on consignment in 1983 to David McKee Gallery; sold to MMA)
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "1979 Biennial Exhibition," February 6–April 8, 1979, unnumbered cat. (p. 39; lent by David McKee Gallery, New York) [on view third floor, February 14–April 8, 1979].
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Philip Guston," May 16–June 29, 1980, no. 83 (lent by the HHK Foundation for Contemporary Art, Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin).
Washington, D. C. Corcoran Gallery of Art. "Philip Guston," July 20–September 9, 1980, no. 83.
Milwaukee Art Museum. "Art In Our Time," October 9–November 30, 1980, unnumbered cat.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. "Philip Guston," November 12, 1980–January 11, 1981, no. 83.
Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. "Art In Our Time," January 15–March 15, 1981, unnumbered cat.
Denver Art Museum. "Philip Guston," February 25–April 26, 1981, no. 83.
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio. "Art In Our Time," June 6–July 19, 1981, unnumbered cat.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Philip Guston," June 24–September 13, 1981, no. 83.
Richmond. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Art In Our Time," September 1–October 11, 1981, unnumbered cat.
Champaign. Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois. "Art In Our Time," November 15–December 31, 1981, unnumbered cat.
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "Art In Our Time," January 23–March 7, 1982, unnumbered cat.
Iowa City. University of Iowa Museum of Art. "Art In Our Time," April 4–May 31, 1982, unnumbered cat.
Memphis. Brooks Memorial Art Gallery. "Art In Our Time," July 8–September 5, 1982, unnumbered cat.
London. Whitechapel Art Gallery. "Philip Guston: Paintings 1969–1980," October 13–December 12, 1982, no. 25 (lent by the HHK Foundation for Contemporary Art, Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin).
University Art Museum, University of Texas at Austin. "Art In Our Time," November 5–December 19, 1982, unnumbered cat.
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. "Philip Guston: Paintings 1969–1980," January 13–March 6, 1983, no. 25.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Aspects of the City," July 31–September 30, 1984, no catalogue (removed early for loan to Exh. Perth 1984).
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. "Philip Guston: The Late Works," September 27–October 28, 1984, no. 27.
Sydney. Art Gallery of New South Wales. "Philip Guston: The Late Works," November 8–December 30, 1984, no. 27.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Selection Two: Twentieth-Century Art," June 4–September 2, 1985, no catalogue.
Madrid. Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. "Philip Guston: Retrospectiva de Pintura," March 1–May 8, 1989, no. 55.
Barcelona. Palau de la Virreina. "Philip Guston: Retrospectiva de Pintura," May 25–July 16, 1989, no. 55.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Philip Guston: 50 Years of Painting," September 9–October 22, 1989, no catalogue.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Philip Guston: 50 Years of Painting," November 19, 1989–January 14, 1990, no catalogue.
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. "Philip Guston Retrospective," March 30–June 8, 2003, no. 113.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. "Philip Guston Retrospective," June 28–September 27, 2003, no. 113.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Philip Guston Retrospective," October 28, 2003–January 4, 2004, no. 113.
London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Philip Guston Retrospective," January 24–April 12, 2004, no. 113.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Street," March 5–May 27, 2013, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, 1950–1980," September 13, 2017–January 14, 2018, no. 57.
Washington, D.C. National Gallery of Art. "Philip Guston Now," March 2–August 27, 2023, unnumbered cat. (pl. 161).
Ross Feld inPhilip Guston. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. New York, 1980, pp. 30–31, 33, colorpl. 73, identifies this painting as a version of Uccello's "Battle of San Romano" (1438–40, Louvre, Paris; National Gallery, London; Uffizi, Florence).
Andrea S. Van Dyke. Art In Our Time. Exh. cat., Milwaukee Art Museum. Milwaukee, 1980, unpaginated, ill. (color), states that this painting contains many of Guston's familiar images such as the chunky shoe, spiders and bottles; identifies the tangled leg imagery from paintings done in 1976; states that the piece of wood stuck with nails "represents an artist's easel and is always included in the works that show the artist either working on or contemplating his art"; comments that Guston's works are always at least in part autobiographical, noting that here the artist's tools are found among the trash.
James Burr. "Round the Galleries: The Rise and Fall of Philip Guston." Apollo 116 (October 1982), p. 273, fig. 1.
David Sweet. "Philip Guston and Beyond." Artscribe (December 1982), ill. p. 27.
Edward F. Fry inPhilip Guston: The Late Works. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. [Sydney], 1984, pp. 19, 64, no. 27, ill. p. 42 (color).
Lisa M. Messinger in "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1983–1984. New York, 1984, p. 98, ill. (color).
Richard F. Shepard. "Going Out Guide: City Lights." New York Times (August 1, 1984), p. C22.
Piri Halasz. "Manhattan Museums: The 1940s vs. the 1980s; Part Two: The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Arts Magazine 59 (March 1985), pp. 97–98.
Eugene Victor Thaw. "The Abstract Expressionists." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 44 (Winter 1986–87), p. 47, fig. 43 (color).
Kay Larson. "The Met Goes Modern: Bill Lieberman's Brave New Wing." New York Magazine 19 (December 15, 1986), ill. p. 44 (color).
Robert Storr. Philip Guston. New York, 1986, pp. 82–83, no. 84, ill.
Lisa Mintz Messinger in20th Century Art: Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Vol. 2, Painting: 1945-1985. New York, 1986, pp. 50–51, ill. (color, overall and detail).
William S. Lieberman in20th Century Art: Selections from the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Vol. 2, Painting: 1945–1985. New York, 1986, p. 7.
Bruce D. Kurtz. New Narrative Painting: Selections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. brochure, Phoenix Art Museum. Phoenix, 1986, unpaginated, ill.
Paul Richard. "Mixing It Up At the Metropolitan: Standards & Surprises at the Museum's New Wallace Wing." Washington Post (February 1, 1987), p. F9.
Kirsten A. Conover. "Philip Guston: an Artist Who Dared Draw Things You Can Recognize." Christian Science Monitor (December 27, 1989), p. 10.
Michael Kimmelman. "At the Met with Elizabeth Murray: Looking for the Magic in Painting." New York Times (October 21, 1994), p. C28, ill. p. C1.
William Corbett. Philip Guston's Late Work: A Memoir. Cambridge, Mass., 1994, pp. 58, 90.
Robert Hughes. The Shock of the New: The Hundred–Year History of Modern Art–Its Rise, Its Dazzling Achievement, Its Fall. 4th ed. [1st ed., 1980]. New York, 1996, p. 398, colorpl. 256.
Michael Kimmelman. "At the Met with Susan Rothenberg and Bruce Nauman: Two Who Define Today Amble in the Past." New York Times (February 21, 1997), p. C26.
Gerhard Mack. "Philip Guston." Künstler: Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst 36, no. 3 (1997), p. 10, fig. 10 (color).
Michael Kimmelman. Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere. New York, 1998, pp. xiii, 30–32, 122, 188, ill. p. 31, calls it "Street" in the text.
Michael Auping inPhilip Guston Retrospective. Exh. cat., Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Fort Worth, 2003, pp. 13, 241, colorpl. 113, calls this painting a "powerful battle scene".
Mario Naves. "Guston, Vindicated Underdog, A Man Who Changed His Mind." New York Observer (November 17, 2003), ill. p. 18.
Sarah Schmerler. "Learning to Scrawl: A Met Retrospective Charts Philip Guston's Animated Progression." Time Out New York no. 414 (September 4–11, 2003), p. 16, ill. (color).
Daniel Kunitz. "The Three Faces of Philip Guston." New York Sun (October 30, 2003).
Nicole Krauss. "The First Painter after the Last." Modern Painters 16 (Winter 2003), p. 91.
William Corbett. "Philip Guston in Retrospect." brooklynrail.org. November 2003, dates it 1930.
"Philip Guston: Abstract Expressionism's Provocative Pioneer and Ultimate Critic." USA Today (West Babylon, N.Y.) (November 2003), p. 50, ill. p. 49 (color).
Paul Richard. "With Gusto: Philip Guston Changed Art With One Swift Cartoony Kick." Calgary Herald (November 22, 2003), p. ES12, ill.
Karen Moy. "Guston: When Figurative Art is Courageous." peoplesworld.org. November 27, 2003.
Ross Feld. Guston in Time: Remembering Philip Guston. New York, 2003, p. 35.
Paul Richard. "Disparate Measures: Philip Guston's Great Divide." Washington Post (November 16, 2003), ill. p. N10 (color).
Robert Storr inMax Beckmann. Ed. Sean Rainbird. Exh. cat., Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. London, 2003, pp. 41–42 [reprinted in Ref. Storr 2003], erroneously lists it as with the estate of the artist.
Thomas Sutcliffe. "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." Independent (February 13, 2004), ill. p. 5.
Post-War and Contemporary Art: Evening Sale. Christie's, New York. May 11, 2005, p. 122, under no. 31, ill. (color).
Robert Zaller. "The Abandoned Studio: Philip Guston's Gnostic Testament." Boulevard 20, nos. 2–3 (2005), p. 113.
Christopher Bucklow. What is in the Dwat: The Universe of Guston's Final Decade. [Grasmere], 2007, p. 88 n. 104, pp. 115, 120, 128, ill. pp. 98–99 (color detail).
David Kaufmann. Telling Stories: Philip Guston's Later Works. Berkeley, 2010, pp. 50–51.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 2012, p. 433, ill. (color).
Paulo Pasta. A Educação Pela Pintura. São Paulo, 2012, fig. 22 (color).
Kathryn Calley Galitz. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Masterpiece Paintings. New York, 2016, p. 534, ill. (color), colorpl. 491.
Jana V. Schmidt. "Philip Guston's Piles." Traversals of Affect: On Jean-François Lyotard. Ed. Julie Gaillard et. al. London, 2016, p. 141.
Kelly Baum inDelirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, 1950–1980. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. New York, 2017, pp. 54, 213, colorpl. 57.
Roberta Smith. "A Nervy Makeover." New York Times (September 15, 2017), p. C18, ill. (color).
Stella Paul. Chromaphilia: The Story of Color in Art. London, 2017, ill. p. 69 (color).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York, 2019, p. 433, ill. (color).
Elly Thomas. Play and the Artist's Creative Process: The Work of Philip Guston and Eduardo Paolozzi. New York, 2019, pp. 59, 63.
Robert Storr. Philip Guston: A Life Spent Painting. London, 2020, p. 197, fig. 209 (color).
Musa Mayer. Philip Guston. London, 2020, p. 93, ill. (color).
Craig Burnett. "Jazzing Michelangelo." Apollo: The International Art Magazine 191 (May 2020), p. 67, fig. 2 (color).
Francesca Pietropaolo, ed. Writings on Art: 1980–2005.. By Robert Storr. London, 2020, p. 510.
Barry Schwabsky. "Philip Guston's Peculiar History Lesson." thenation.com. April 12, 2021, ill. (color).
Robin Pogrebin. "Met to Receive Trove of Philip Guston's Art." New York Times (December 15, 2022), p. C6.
Jonathan Goodman. "The Guston Foundation: The Maintenance of Philip Guston's Legacy." brooklynrail.org. October 2022.
Phong Bui. "Philip Guston Now—A Personal Meditation." brooklynrail.org. May 2023.
Joe Bradley. "Reflections on Philip Guston Now." brooklynrail.org. June 2023.
Barry Schwabsky. "Philip Guston Now." brooklynrail.org. July/August 2023, ill. (color, installation photo, Exh. Washington 2023).
Rachel Haidu. "Shapes, Wholes, History." October 185 (Summer 2023), p. 114.
The Guston Foundation, ed. Catalogue Raisonné. Online resource [gustoncrllc.org/home/catalogue_raisonne], 2024–25 (accessed), no. P77.038, ill. (color).
Trenton Doyle Hancock and Valerie Cassel Oliver inDraw Them In, Paint Them Out: Trenton Doyle Hancock Confronts Philip Guston. Exh. cat., Jewish Museum, New York. New York, 2024, ill. p. 132 (color).
Philip Guston (American (born Canada), Montreal 1913–1980 Woodstock, New York)
1936
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
