READING PHILIP GUSTON'S LATE PERIOD FIGURATIONS THROUGH THE OPPOSITIONAL CHARACTER OF ART

Abstract

The purification, purity and limitation imposed by high-art values and modernism have exposed art
to a distance from social issues, life and the reality of the world. The fact that art, whose scope has
narrowed with the idea of modern art, moves away from the subjects that can have a human and
social benefit and is meaningful only through aesthetics of form has brought a formalist
understanding of art to the agenda. This understanding was manifested even at the end of the
modern art period and found a response especially in American abstract art. The language of the
new art, which excludes socio-political issues along with content and narrative, has also fallen away
from figurative expressions in this context. In this period, although a desire for purity and purification prevailed through abstract art, various art movements and tendencies that turned their
direction back to life itself and figuration attracted attention. Philip Guston has been among the
leading artists of this orientation. Guston, who developed a critical language on social, vital and
political issues, drew attention to the oppositional character of art and blessed the possibilities of
figurative expression in this direction. In this research, it is aimed to deal with Philip Guston's late
period figurations through the oppositional character of art. Emphasis is placed on the influence of
the artist, who exhibited an extraordinary attitude with his caricature-like and grotesque
expressions, on the art circles of his period. In addition to this, attention has been drawn to the
controversial nature of his works, which are examples of the historical relationship of art with the
opposition, which continues to be effective even today.