Los Angeles' Loss Is New York's Gain

Edward Goldman's art talk this week is about how Los Angeles art collector, Edward Broida's collection of Philip Guston paintings aren't being donated to a Los Angeles art institution, but are instead going to the MOMA in NY. I think this is a real shame, as Guston is a very special artist and it would be great if the collection stayed in LA. Here is some info on Guston:

Philip Guston was a childhood friend of Jackson Pollock. Both became leading artists of the New York School of painters, along with Rothko, Kline, De Kooning, Newman and Motherwell. The most dramatic point in Guston's career was his 1970 exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in New York where he was seen to betray the dominant genre of abstract painting, by moving into a courageously personal and highly charged figuration that acknowledged and paid homage to artists of the past: Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Goya and Cézanne. With knowledge of their work Guston produced searing images of American society, loaded with moral intensity and self-reflection. He presented 20th century life in its most hideous and extreme form.

The two works illustrate how radical of a shift Guston made. The one is entitled "Street II" from 1977 and the other is entitled "Gladiators" and is from the 1930's. Needless to say some in the art world were quite confused when his work shifted. I believe "Gladiators" is in the collection of Mr. Broida, or I mean the MOMA!