The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 24, 2025

Oil panting of an open scroll with frenetic black brushstrokes creating a dark background with red and white touches. In the bottom half of the painting, an overlaid white and red line suggest a curving ground on which rests the white outline of the scroll. Partially unrolled, white dashes suggest text on the scroll.

Scroll

1978

Philip Guston

(American, 1913–1980)
America
oil on canvas
Framed: 203.4 x 244 x 2.5 cm (80 1/16 x 96 1/16 x 1 in.); Unframed: 203.4 x 244 cm (80 1/16 x 96 1/16 in.)
Bequest of Musa Guston 1992.212
© The Estate of Philip Guston
Location: 229B Contemporary

Did You Know?

The artist applied oil paint thinly on the upper portion of the work, resulting in a matte appearance, while the glossy area in the middle suggests a thick, wet-on-wet painting technique.

Description

During the last, most productive decade of Philip Guston’s career, his imagery included ordinary objects such as bottles, books, light bulbs, and shoes—emblematic of art historical, social, and personal experiences. Here a scroll, often associated with the Torah, the book of Jewish law, alludes to Guston’s religious heritage. Isolated against a dark, somber background of turbulent brushstrokes, the scroll has been unrolled to reveal thick hatchings that suggest a text.
  • ?–1992
    Estate of Musa Guston, New York, NY, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1992–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Dabrowski, Magdalena. The Drawings of Philip Guston. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1988. 41
    Ashton, Dore. A Critical Study of Philip Guston. Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1990. 188
    Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1992.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (February 1993): 38–79. Mentioned: p. 66 www.jstor.org
    Franklin, David. The Cleveland Museum of Art. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd., 2012. Reproduced: p. 76 - 77
    Godfrey, Mark. "Jewish Image-Maker." In Philip Guston Now. Harry Cooper, ed., 192-203. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2020. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 193-194, fig. 1
  • Contemporary Installation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).
    "Selected Acquisitions," CMA, 1993.
  • {{cite web|title=Scroll|url=false|author=Philip Guston|year=1978|access-date=24 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1992.212