Artwork Page for Sleeper I

Details / Information for Sleeper I

Sleeper I

1958

Philip Guston

(American, 1913–1980)
Culture
America
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Framed: 170 x 195 x 4.5 cm (66 15/16 x 76 3/4 x 1 3/4 in.); Unframed: 168.2 x 193 cm (66 1/4 x 76 in.)
Credit Line
Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art 1961.21
Copyright
© The Estate of Philip Guston
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

The artist was born in Montreal, Canada, to Jewish immigrants from Odessa, in present-day Ukraine.

Description

Philip Guston’s working method at the time he created Sleeper I entailed a progression from relying on accidental effects to being more deliberate; in his words, “The air of arbitrary vanishes and the paint falls into positions that feel destined.”
Horizontally oriented, abstract oil painting with thick, streaking paint strokes extending across the canvas. Vaguely rectangular black clusters of brushstrokes surrounded with red streaks gather in the center. Dark blue also fills spaces, lightening in color as it sporadically intermingles with the mostly white strokes in the background. Occasional orange, green, red, and yellow intermix with the white. These colors streak through some of the white strokes, most of which are partially grey-tinged.

Sleeper I

1958

Philip Guston

(American, 1913–1980)
America

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