Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see. I don't know what a painting is; who knows what sets off even the desire to paint? It might be things, thoughts, a… — Philip Guston Copy Share Image
I don't know what a painting is; who knows what sets off even the desire to paint? It might be things, thoughts, a memory, sensations, which have nothing to do directly with painting itself. They can come from anything and… — Philip Guston Copy Share Image
That's what I mean by something grips in a canvas. The moment that happens you are then sucked into the whole thing. Like some… — Philip Guston Copy Share Image
Then you learn about composition, you learn about old masters, you form certain ideas about structure. But the inhuman activity of trying to make some kind of jump or leap, where , the painting is always saying, 'What do you want from me? I can only be a painting.' You have to go from part to part, but you shouldn't… — Philip Guston Copy Share
I go to the studio everyday because one day I may go and the Angel will be there. What if I don't go and… — Philip Guston Copy Share Image
Sometimes I scrape off a lot. You have on the floor, like cow dung in the field, this big glob of paint... and it's… — Philip Guston Copy Share Image
Painting seems like impossibility, with only a sign now and then of its own light. — Philip Guston Copy Share Image
Many works of the past complete what they announce they are going to do, to our increasing boredom. Certain others plague me because I… — Philip Guston Copy Share Image
Probably the most potent desire for a painter, an image-maker, is to see it. To see what the mind can think and imagine, to… — Philip Guston Copy Share Image
No good to paint in the head - what happens is what happens when you put the paint down - you can only hope that you are alert - ready - to see. What joy it is for paint to become a thing - a being. Believe in this miracle - it is your only hope. To will this transformation… — Philip Guston Copy Share
The canvas you are working on modifies the previous ones in an unending, baffling chain which never seems to finish. What sympathy is demanded… — Philip Guston Copy Share Image
I do not see why the loss of faith in the known image and symbol in our time should be celebrated as a freedom.… — Philip Guston Copy Share Image
The things I felt... about certain painters of the past that... inspired me, like Cezanne and Manet... that complete losing of oneself in the… — Philip Guston Copy Share Image
