id: 136672
accession number: 1961.21
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1961.21
updated: 2019-11-18 10:51:20.233000
Sleeper I, 1958. Philip Guston (American, 1913-1980). Oil on canvas; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art 1961.21 © The Estate of Philip Guston
title: Sleeper I
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1958
creation date earliest: 1958
creation date latest: 1958
current location:
creditline: Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art
copyright: © The Estate of Philip Guston
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culture: America, 20th century
technique: oil on canvas
department: American Painting and Sculpture
collection: American - Painting
type: Painting
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catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* Philip Guston (American, 1913-1980) - artist
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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.)
state of the work:
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support materials:
inscriptions:
inscription: Signed lower right: Philip Guston; written on back of canvas: Philip Guston 'Sleeper' 1958
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Year in Review (1961)
opening date: 1961-11-01T04:00:00
Year in Review (1961). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 1-26, 1961).
title: Fifty Years of Modern Art
opening date: 1966-06-15T04:00:00
Fifty Years of Modern Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (June 15-July 31, 1966).
title: Works from the Contemporary Collection
opening date: 1969-07-01T04:00:00
Works from the Contemporary Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art (July 1-October 15, 1969).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Cleveland, OH, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Year in Review (1 -26 November 1961)
Cleveland, OH, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Shadowed Images (19 February - 31 March 1963)
Cleveland, OH, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Fifty Years of Modern Art: 1916-1966 (15 June - 31 July 1966), cat. no. 132, repr.
CMA: Works from the Contemporary Collection, July 1-mid-October, 1969
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PROVENANCE
(Sidney Janis Gallery, NY)
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fun fact:
digital description:
wall description:
Sleeper I exemplifies Philip Guston's pursuit of abstraction, which occupied him for 20 years of his five-decade career. Although he broke away from his heroic figurative style during the late 1940s, suggestions of objects or figures persist in the heavy strokes of muddy black paint applied to his abstract canvases. In Sleeper I, the pinkish-gray halftones convey a gentle mood of reverie that is interrupted by dark, oppressive forms and streamers of red erupting from the center. If the painting can be considered a direct expression of the artist's feelings, it suggests that Guston's view of the world had taken on an ominous tone. Often feeling conflicted and ambivalence about abstraction, he declared that "Doubt itself . . . becomes a form." By 1970 he returned to a representational, often cartoon-like style that shows traces of his early years as a mural painter.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page number: Reproduced: p. 202
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n226
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page number: Reproduced: p. 202
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n226
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page number: Reproduced: p. 253
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n273
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IMAGES