Hauser & Wirth to Present Philip Guston's Controversial Hooded Works in New York

Hauser & Wirth will stage a solo exhibition of Philip Guston's late figurative works, including his controversial hooded figures, at its Chelsea gallery in New York in September 2021. The show, titled 'Philip Guston. 1969-1979,' covers the artist's final decade and features loans from museums and private collections. This comes after four major museums—National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and Tate Modern in London—postponed the traveling retrospective 'Philip Guston: Now' from 2020 to 2022 due to concerns that the hooded imagery could be misinterpreted as appropriating Black trauma. The delay sparked international debate involving curator Robert Storr, the Guston Foundation led by the artist's daughter Musa Mayer, and critic Peter Benson Miller. In a February 2021 interview with Artribune, Mayer defended her father's right to depict racial intolerance, noting his background as the son of Jewish immigrants who fled Ukraine and witnessed KKK marches in Los Angeles. Hauser & Wirth, which has represented the Guston estate since 2015, did not reference the postponed museum show in its announcement. The gallery previously held Guston exhibitions in Los Angeles and St. Moritz.