Black Sea 1977

Editor: This is Philip Guston’s “Black Sea,” an oil on canvas currently residing at the Tate. It's…stark. Almost foreboding. What do you make of its bluntness? Curator: Bluntness is key. Guston's return to figuration was a radical act. Consider the social context: the late 60s, civil unrest, Vietnam. He’s confronting the uncomfortable, the grotesque. Do you see how the cartoonish forms, almost Klan-like, challenge the supposed purity of abstract expressionism? Editor: Klan-like? I hadn’t made that connection. So the "bluntness" is intentional, a kind of confrontation? Curator: Precisely. He forces us to confront the banality of evil, its presence in everyday life. It's not pretty, but it's necessary. It asks: who are we, really? Editor: I see it now. It's much more challenging than I initially thought. Curator: Exactly. It's a work that demands we look beyond the surface, engage with the messy realities of history and identity.