A selection of works from Musa Mayer’s gift will be on view in a special installation opening May 27, 2023. The display, which will focus on the artist’s deeply philosophical approach to the nature of artistic identity and the aesthetic possibilities of painting, will be organized by Kelly Baum, Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Curator of Contemporary Art in The Met’s Department of Modern and Contemporary Art.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced the transformative promised gift of 220 works by Philip Guston (1913–1980) from the personal collection of Musa Mayer, the artist’s daughter. Consisting of 96 paintings and 124 drawings—the earliest created in 1930 and the latest made in 1980—the collection represents the full arc of Guston’s career. Ultimately, the gift will position The Met as the largest repository of works by the iconic American painter.

The collection of Musa Mayer is notable for the many consequential and foundational works it comprises, the majority created during the last three decades of Guston’s life, when he was especially innovative and prolific. Highlights of the promised gift include: Mother and Child (c. 1930), Untitled (1958), The Three (1964), The Studio (1969), Pantheon (1973), Pittore (1973), Yellow Light (1975), Both (1976), Floor (1976), Aegean II (1977), Sleeping (1977), The Line (1978), and Flame (1979).

The Museum also announced a major gift of $10 million from Musa and Thomas Mayer to establish The Philip Guston Endowment Fund, which will be used to support initiatives related to the collection, advance scholarship regarding Guston, and further the artist’s legacy.

Metropolitan Museum of Art press release

Related articles: The New York Times, APOLLO, Barron's

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