Chris Ofili on Philip Guston

“I sometimes choose to see the wheels and black body of the car as eyes in a pair of binoculars staring out of the painting like a law-abiding urban bird-watcher on the edge of the city.”

Chris Ofili was one of five contributors invited to consider Philip Guston’s work in Artforum’s January/February 2021 issue. 

Ofili focuses on Guston’s City Limits, 1969 and dissects the painterly components that make up the artwork. He pays close attention to Guston’s brushwork and traces its tactile process across the canvas. In Ofili’s writing, we read how these deep investigations must take place when one— artist or not—is confronted with such powerful art.

Read Ofili’s article in Artforum. 

Image: Philip Guston, City Limits, 1969 (detail). © The Estate of Philip Guston