Coat 1980

Curator: This is Philip Guston's print, "Coat," currently residing in the Tate Collections. It strikes me with a haunting stillness, almost like a discarded memory. Editor: The material presence is compelling. The stark black lines defining this crumpled coat suggest a weight far beyond mere cloth. What ink and paper were used, I wonder? Curator: Notice how the coat form is both there and not there. The form reminds me of absence, evoking grief. It is filled with symbolic shapes, like floating eyes, and they’re almost cartoonish! Editor: Right, Guston was invested in how simple methods replicated and disseminated imagery. This coat, rendered so crudely, carries its own form of protest. Curator: Indeed. And that sense of unease, of being watched or judged, resonates deeply in our cultural moment. Editor: The image and its reproduction certainly speak volumes about materiality and meaning. Curator: It is a compelling conversation, and I'll be thinking about it for a while. Editor: Agreed, it is a work that warrants consideration.