Musa Mayer on ‘Life with P.: Journals, 1966–1976’

Why It Matters

The exhibition redefines the artist‑wife role, enriching art‑historical discourse and highlighting overlooked female creativity within iconic 20th‑century partnerships.

Key Takeaways

• Musa Mayer curates mother’s journals revealing artist‑wife experience.
• Journals span 1966‑1976, covering pivotal decade of parents’ marriage.
• Father illustrated mother’s poems, showing collaborative creative partnership.
• Travel entries highlight mother’s poetic observations of nature.
• Exhibition aims to share mother’s sensibility beyond traditional art narratives.

Summary

Musa Mayer’s new project, "Life with P," assembles and interprets her mother’s journals from 1966‑1976, a decade that marked both artistic breakthroughs for her father and a turbulent period in their marriage. The collection, digitized by the Gustin Foundation, uncovers a personal narrative that had remained hidden after her mother’s death, offering a rare glimpse into the life of a so‑called “artist’s wife.”

The journals reveal how the couple’s separation sparked her mother’s intensive writing, turning everyday travel notes—such as a ten‑day Yucatán trip—into poetic fragments about shells, stones, and landscapes. Her father, a celebrated painter, responded by illustrating her verses, creating a unique dialogue between text and image that underscores their creative partnership despite personal discord.

Mayer highlights specific examples: seven “poem‑pictures” from the early 1970s where the father extracted stanzas and rendered them in his visual language, and travel entries that read like miniature poems. These artifacts illustrate the mother’s sensibility, her connection to nature, and the intimate dynamics of their shared life.

By publishing the journals and mounting an exhibition, Mayer reframes the narrative of the artist’s spouse from a peripheral figure to a central creative voice. The project invites scholars, collectors, and the public to reconsider gendered histories in modern art and to recognize the collaborative undercurrents that shape artistic legacies.

Original Description

Musa Mayer reflects on the release of ‘Life with P.’ from Hauser & Wirth Publishers. The illustrated volume brings together previously unpublished journals by Musa McKim from 1966 – 1976, edited and contextualized by Mayer, and accompanies the exhibition ‘Life with P.’ currently on view at Hauser & Wirth 18th Street through 10 July.

About ‘Life with P.: Journals, 1966–1976’

Bringing together Musa McKim’s journals and poetry, 'Life with P.: Journals, 1966–1976' draws an intimate and candid portrait of McKim’s life as a writer and her marriage to the esteemed painter Philip Guston. The book spans a critical decade in the couple’s marriage as well as a period of profound change and productivity in Guston’s artistic practice that saw the creation of some of his most iconic late works. McKim’s writings capture daily life at their home and studio in Woodstock, trips to New York City, travels abroad to Mexico and Italy, and time spent at various artist residencies. A rich collection of artworks and archival images documents the couple’s domestic and social lives and the fellow artists and writers who made up their world. Alongside her introduction, notes by their daughter Musa Mayer provide valuable context to her mother’s writings. Complementing Mayer’s own celebrated memoir 'Night Studio' (1988), 'Life with P.' is an extraordinary window into McKim’s singular experience of the world.

–

Hauser & Wirth is an international contemporary and modern art gallery with spaces in Zurich, London, Somerset, New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, St. Moritz, Monaco, Menorca, Paris and Basel.

–

Subscribe to Hauser & Wirth’s YouTube: https://youtube.com/@HauserWirth

Sign up to Hauser & Wirth’s Newsletter: hauserwirth.com/subscribe

Follow Hauser & Wirth on:

https://instagram.com/hauserwirth/

https://facebook.com/hauserwirth/

https://twitter.com/HauserWirth

MB01VWJP48RUBI7