Visit and Talk: Philip Guston’s Only Surviving Mural in California

Visit Philip Guston’s only surviving mural in California followed by a discussion on the occasion of the artist’s first exhibition in Los Angeles in over 50 years, ‘Resilience: Philip Guston in 1971.’ This little-known, WPA-era mural, created by Guston and artist Reuben Kadish in 1936, was commissioned for what was then a tuberculosis sanitorium at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA. Guston, who was raised in California and studied at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, was exposed as a young artist to the work of Mexican muralists David Siqueiros and Jose Clemente Orozco. Both artists would influence Guston’s early mural projects, including one commission that was sponsored by Siqueiros in Morelia, Mexico. This visit to one of Guston’s earliest public commissions will highlight the pivotal role that Southern California played in the formative years of his career. Ellen G. Landau, Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emerita in the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University, will lead a discussion about Guston and Kadish, the nature of their collaboration, their connections to Los Angeles, and their relationship to early 20th Century Mexican muralists. Guston’s story continues in the newly published ‘Resilience: Philip Guston in 1971,’ which presents an essay authored by Musa Mayer, Guston’s daughter, that offers an intimate view of her father’s state of mind during 1971 — a year defined by the artist’s stalwart resilience and creative reinvention. Visitor Logistics & Registration Attendees should meet outside the Visitor’s Center at the City of Hope for check-in starting at 2.30 pm. The event will begin promptly at 3 pm. This event is free, however, reservations are required. Click here to register. City of Hope Visitor’s Center 1500 E. Duarte Road Duarte, CA 91010 About Ellen G. Landau Ellen G. Landau, Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emerita in the Humanities at Case Western Reserve University, is an independent art historian and curator living in Pasadena. Landau’s many publications include a monograph on Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner’s catalogue raisonné, and a comprehensive examination of Abstract Expressionist historiography and criticism. Her prize-winning 2007 essay, ‘Double Consciousness in Mexico: How Philip Guston and Reuben Kadish Painted a Morelian Mural,’ became incorporated into ‘Mexico and American Modernism,’ a 2013 study published by Yale University Press. This text provides a new interpretation for the decisive impact of their various Mexican experiences on four major mid-20th century American modernists. Its main protagonists include Robert Motherwell and Isamu Noguchi as well as Pollock and Guston; all of these artists had crucial ties to California as well.