Reading & Book Launch: Musa Mayer Reads From ‘Life with P.: Journals, 1966–1976’

Why It Matters

The journals provide a rare, intimate lens on Philip Guston’s later work, prompting reassessment of his artistic legacy and enriching the cultural value of the exhibition and book.

Key Takeaways

• Musa Mayer publishes mother’s unpublished journals, adding new perspective.
• Book ties personal diaries to Guston’s late artistic evolution.
• Exhibition “Life with P” showcases Guston’s domestic, observational works.
• Journals reveal intimate daily routines, studio habits, and emotional strains.
• Publication invites scholars to reassess Guston’s legacy via his wife’s eyes.

Summary

The event centered on the launch of Life with P: Journals, 1966–1976, an illustrated volume of Musa McKim Guston’s previously unpublished diaries, edited by her daughter Musa Mayer. The book debuted alongside Hauser & Wirth’s new exhibition “Life with P Philip Guston, Paintings and Drawings 1964–1978,” which emphasizes the artist’s private, observational side rather than his public political satire. Mayer explained that the journals, kept in spiral‑bound notebooks, chronicle a decade of personal and artistic turbulence—from Philip’s 1966 departure and subsequent reconciliation, to the construction of their Woodstock studio and the infamous Marlborough retrospective. The entries detail everyday moments—rainstorms, wildflowers, studio routines—and reveal how the couple’s emotional dynamics directly informed Guston’s late‑style canvases. Among the readings, Mayer highlighted a May 1969 entry describing a rainbow, a dinner with friends, and Philip’s obsessive studio work, which she linked to his iconic “The Studio” painting. She also recounted a vivid June 1969 passage where Philip’s sleeplessness and compulsive painting are juxtaposed with domestic details like hard‑boiled eggs and coffee, underscoring the intertwining of personal hardship and creative output. By bringing McKim’s voice into the public record, the publication reshapes scholarly understanding of Guston’s oeuvre, offering a nuanced view of his domestic life and creative process. It also expands the market for archival art books and reinforces Hauser & Wirth’s role in curating comprehensive artist narratives.

Original Description

On the occasion of the exhibition ‘Life With P. Philip Guston: Paintings and Drawings 1964–1978’ and the release of the corresponding new book from Hauser & Wirth Publishers, ‘Life with P.: Journals, 1966–1976’ by Musa McKim Guston, we hosted a reading from the book by its editor Musa Mayer, President of The Guston Foundation and daughter of Musa McKim and Philip Guston.

‘Life With P. Philip Guston: Paintings and Drawings 1964 – 1978,’ illuminates an intimate and rarely observed facet of Philip Guston’s art. While this groundbreaking 20th century master is best known for raw, painterly explorations of sociopolitical power and sobering inspections of human nature, this exhibition at Hauser & Wirth’s 18th Street space focuses on a selection of Guston’s more intimate paintings and works on paper in which the artist ruminates on his marriage to poet Musa McKim and their lives together in Woodstock. The works on view include a collection of Guston’s ‘Poem Pictures,’ drawings that respond to his wife’s poetry, as well as three large-scale figurative paintings that have never before been exhibited.

The corresponding book, ‘Life with P.: Journals, 1966–1976,’ brings together Musa McKim’s journals and poetry, drawing an intimate and candid portrait of McKim’s life as a writer and her marriage to the esteemed painter Philip Guston. 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.

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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.

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