Musa Mayer on Philip Guston: New Book, Foundation, and Controversy

Musa Mayer, daughter of Philip Guston, discusses the launch of her new book 'Philip Guston' (February 4, 2021, Laurence King Publishing), the Guston Foundation's digital catalog raisonné (PhilipGuston.org, launched June 2020), and the postponed retrospective 'Philip Guston Now'. The foundation, led by executive director Sally Radic, published the first complete catalog of over 1,000 paintings with high-resolution images, provenance, and exhibition history. Mayer reflects on the controversy over the hooded figures in Guston's work, which she defends as anti-racist critiques of white guilt and the banality of evil. She criticizes museums for postponing the show, calling it a missed opportunity for dialogue. The book offers a concise introduction to Guston's career from 1930s murals to late figurative works (1968-80). Mayer also discusses her personal journey from writing the memoir 'Night Studio' (1988) to managing the estate and foundation since 2015, collaborating with Hauser & Wirth (since 2015) and curators like Robert Storr and Alison de Lima Greene.