Philip Guston
Catalogue Raisonné
Title
Work the American Way (Maintaining America's Skills)
Date
1939
Medium
Chlorinated rubber paint on cement
Dimensions
456 x 456 in.1158.2 x 1158.2 cm
Inscription
Catalogue No.
P39.003
Provenance
Destroyed
Exhibitions
No exhibitions listed
Bibliography
Life. "The WPA Building Raises A Ruckus." c. 1939, illus. in b&w
New York World-Telegram [Article title unknown]. May 3, 1939. Print, illus. in b&w
The New York Times. "Debris Still Fills Pavilion of WPA: View from the Outside Shows Men at Work on Building, Not yet Open to the Public." May 4, 1939, mentioned in text, not illus.
Kruse, A.Z. "Art." Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 16, 1939, section Trend, p. 7, mentioned in text, not illus.
The New York Times. "Mural on WPA Building Judged Best Outdoor Art." August 7, 1939, p. 3, mentioned in text, not illus.
Architectural Forum. "Forum of Events." September 1939, p. 12, illus. in b&w, listed as "Maintaining America's Skills"
[Publication unknown]. c. 1939, illus. in b&w in progress
[Publication unknown]. "Machine Grinds In Wall Display of Ford Motor." c. 1939, mentioned in text, not illus.
Harris, Ruth Green. "Public Tastes in Murals: Underlying Ideas vs. Pictorial Quality in Favorite Examples at World's Fair." The New York Times, July 28, 1940, section 9, p. X7, mentioned in text, not illus.
Reeves, Ruth. "Art Forms in Architecture: Murals." Architectural Record, October 1940, p. 73-76, detail illus. in b&w p. 74 (unpaginated) and mentioned in text p. 75 (unpaginated)
Iowa City Press-Citizen. "Mural Painted By Philip Guston Is Prize Winner." August 1, 1941, illus. in b&w
Hinkle, Karl. ''Artist Must Bridge Gap Between Artists and Public: Guston Expresses Sentiment of Today's Young American Painter." Daily Iowan, October 9, 1941, p. 4, mentioned in text as 'The large outdoor painting on the facade of the Federal Works Agency building at the New York World's fair', not illus.
"Work and Play" mural by Phillip Guston for Queensbridge Houses Community Center. Dedication program. New York: Work Projects Administration Arts Program, March 18, 1941, mentioned in text p. 3, not illus.
Omaha World-Herald. "Gains Fame for Murals: Building at Capital Gets Work by Iowan." May 17, 1942, mentioned in text, not illus.
Janson, H. W. "'Martial Memory' by Philip Guston and American Painting Today." Bulletin of the City Art Museum of Saint Louis, December 1942, pp. 34–41, mentioned in text p. 39, not illus.
Austin American. "2nd in Series of Exhibitions Opens Tuesday: Thon, Guston and Shulkin Work to Be Presented." July 30, 1944, mentioned in text, not illus.
Larkin, Oliver W. Art and Life in America. New York: Rinehart, 1949, mentioned in text p. 426 as "Maintaining America's Skills", not illus.
Genauer, Emily. "Guston 'Negatives' versus Impressionist Positives." New York Herald Tribune, January 16, 1966, p. 27, mentioned in text, not illus.
Moritz, Charles, ed. Current Biography Yearbook 1971. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1971, pp. 176-178, mentioned in text p. 176, not illus.
O'Connor, Francis V., ed. The New Deal Art Projects: An Anthology of Memoirs. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972, illus. in b&w p. 255 Figure 49 and mentioned in text pp. 254 and 256
Cone, Michèle. The Roots & Routes of Art in the 20th Century. New York: Horizon Press, 1975, mentioned in text p. 171, not illus., listed as "Maintaining America's Skills"
Craig, Lois, and the Staff of the Federal Architecture Project. The Federal Presence: Architecture, Politics, and Symbols in United States Government Buildings. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1978, illus. in b&w p. 408
O'Connor, Francis V., ed. "Philip Guston and Political Humanism." In Arts and Architecture in the Service of Politics, edited by Henry A. Milton and Linda Nochlin. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1978, Fig. 2 illus. in b&w p. 347 and mentioned in text pp. 345 and 349
Dawn of a New Day The New York World's Fair 1939/40. Exh. cat. New York: Queens Museum and New York University Press, 1980., illus. in color p. 89 and mentioned in text p. 65
Hanson, Bernard. "Guston's Fine Lines and Gray Areas." Hartford Courant, August 23, 1981, p. G2, mentioned in text, not illus.
Social Concern and Urban Realism: American Paintings of the 1930s. Exh. cat. American Federation of the Arts, 1983, mentioned in text p. 55, not illus.
Philip Guston: The Late Works. Exh. cat. Melbourne: The National Gallery of Victoria, 1984, mentioned in text p. 60 as part of Chronology, not illus.
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston by His Daughter. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988, illus. in b&w no. 11 (following p. 18) and mentioned in text p. 31
Feaver, William. "Have His KKK and Eat It." Observer (London), June 25, 1989, p. 41, mentioned in text, not illus.
Philip Guston: In Context. Exh. cat. Oxford: The Museum of Modern Art Oxford, 1989, mentioned in text, not illus.
Abramson, Glenda, ed. The Blackwell Companion to Jewish Culture from the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Oxford: Blackwell, 1989, mentioned in text p. 296 as "Maintaining America's Skills", not illus.
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston by His Daughter. 1988. Reprint, New York: Penguin, 1990, illus. in b&w no. 11 (following p. 18) and mentioned in text p. 31
Graham-Dixon, Andrew. "Laughing in the Dark." Independent Magazine, February 23, 1991, pp. 48–52, mentioned in text p. 52, not illus.
Curtis, Anthony. "Portrait of an action painter." Financial Times (London), February 23/24, 1991, section Weekend FT, p. XVI, mentioned in text, not illus.
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston. 1988. Reprint, London: Thames and Hudson, 1991, illus. in b&w no. 11 (following p. 18) and mentioned in text p. 31
Jenkins, Herman L. New York City Department of Personnel Annual Report, FY 1993, illus. in b&w p. 5
American Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913–1993. Exh. cat. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1993, mentioned in text p. 68, not illus.
Shapiro, Michael Edward. "Philip Guston: The War Years." Print Collector's Newsletter, September–October 1994, mentioned in text p. 128, not illus.
Graham-Dixon, Andrew. Paper Museum: Writing on Painting, Mostly. London: Harper Collins Publishers, 1996, mentioned in text p. 202, not illus.
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston. Reprint, Boston: Da Capo Press, 1997, illus. in b&w no. 11 (following p. 18) and mentioned in text p. 31
Philip Guston: Working Through the Forties. Exh. cat. Iowa City: University of Iowa Museum of Art, 1997, illus. in b&w p. 10
Philip Guston Tableaux / Paintings 1947 - 1979. Exh. cat. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2000, mentioned in text p. 130, not illus.
Botelho, Manuel. Guston em contexto: até ao regresso da figura. Lisbon: Livros Vendaval, 2007, illus. in b&w p. 43 and mentioned in text pp. 43-44
Baskind, Samantha. Encyclopedia of Jewish American Artists. London: Greenwood Press, 2007, mentioned in text p. 137, not illus.
Shoemaker, Innis Howe. Adventures in Modern Art: The Charles K. Williams II Collection. Exh. cat. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009, mentioned in text p. 169, not illus.
Pollock, Jackson, Francesca Pollock, Silvia Winters Pollock, and Charles Pollock. American Letters: 1927–1947, Jackson Pollock & Family. Malden: Polity, 2011, mentioned in text p. 156
Pfeiffer, Ingrid, and Max Hollein, eds. Philip Guston Das Grosse Spatwerk/Late Works. Exh. cat. Cologne: Strzeleckibooks, 2013, illus. in b&w fig. 5 p. 17 (Ingrid Pfeiffer essay) of Guston working on the mural sketch and mentioned in text p. 140 (English)/139 (German)
Baker, R. C. "Master Baffler: How Philip Guston Gave Form to Doubt." Village Voice, May 17, 2016, section Visual Arts. Online, mentioned in text, not illus.
Eaton, William. "Guston, Schapiro, Rosenberg,...Dialogue." Zeteo Journal, July 13, 2016. Online, illus. in b&w in endnotes
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston. 1988. Reprint, Munich: Sieveking Verlag; Zurich: Hauser & Wirth, 2016, illus. no. 20, illus. in b&w and mentioned in text p. 47
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: Un ritratto intimo di Philip Guston. Monza: Johan & Levi, 2017, illus. in b&w p. 42 and mentioned in text p. 41
The Paper (Shanghai). "疫情下的欧美艺术行业，重看大萧条时期罗斯福的新政." April 28, 2020. Online, illus. in b&w
Strick, Jeremy. "Opinion: The US Government Likely Won't Step Up With a New Deal for Art. But We Can Create Our Own With Public Art (and Private Sponsorship)." artnet News, May 4, 2020. Online, illus. in b&w photo of Guston working on mural
Mayer, Musa. Philip Guston. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2020, illus. in b&w p. 12, detail illus. in color of Guston painting mural p. 13 and mentioned in text p. 11
Cooper, Harry, Mark Godfrey, Alison de Lima Greene, and Kate Nesin. Philip Guston Now. Exh. cat. Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2020, mentioned in text p. 225, not illus.
Storr, Robert. Philip Guston: A Life Spent Painting. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2020, illus. in b&w p. 285 (along with several images of Guston working on the mural), No. 6 illus in b&w p. 19 as part of a photo of Guston working on the mural, illus. in b&w p. 286 as part of a photo of Guston and as part of a newspaper clipping and mentioned in text pp. 22, 285 and 286
Tallman, Susan. "Philip Guston's Discomfort Zone: How is it that the artist, dead these forty years, is still pushing our buttons?" New York Review of Books, January 14, 2021, pp. 12-15, mentioned in text p. 13, not illus.
Coolidge, Clark, ed. Philip Guston: Que peindre sinon l'énigme. Translated by Éric Suchère. Strasbourg: L'Atelier Contemporain, 2023, mentioned in text p. 32, not illus.
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston. 1988. Reprint, Zurich: Hauser & Wirth, 2023, illus. no. 20, illus. in b&w and mentioned in text p. 47
Dunbar, Max. "The Daily Struggle: Philip Guston and American Art in the 1930s." PhD diss. Washington University in St. Louis, 2024, illus. in b&w Fig. 4.1 p. 192
Philip Guston: The Irony of History. Paris: Editions Gallimard, 2025, illus. no. 28 illus. in b&w p. 47 and mentioned in text pp. 24 and 198
Murphy, John P. New Deal Art: Culture and Crisis in the Great Depression. London: Thames & Hudson, 2025, mentioned in text, not illus.
New York World-Telegram [Article title unknown]. May 3, 1939. Print, illus. in b&w
The New York Times. "Debris Still Fills Pavilion of WPA: View from the Outside Shows Men at Work on Building, Not yet Open to the Public." May 4, 1939, mentioned in text, not illus.
Kruse, A.Z. "Art." Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 16, 1939, section Trend, p. 7, mentioned in text, not illus.
The New York Times. "Mural on WPA Building Judged Best Outdoor Art." August 7, 1939, p. 3, mentioned in text, not illus.
Architectural Forum. "Forum of Events." September 1939, p. 12, illus. in b&w, listed as "Maintaining America's Skills"
[Publication unknown]. c. 1939, illus. in b&w in progress
[Publication unknown]. "Machine Grinds In Wall Display of Ford Motor." c. 1939, mentioned in text, not illus.
Harris, Ruth Green. "Public Tastes in Murals: Underlying Ideas vs. Pictorial Quality in Favorite Examples at World's Fair." The New York Times, July 28, 1940, section 9, p. X7, mentioned in text, not illus.
Reeves, Ruth. "Art Forms in Architecture: Murals." Architectural Record, October 1940, p. 73-76, detail illus. in b&w p. 74 (unpaginated) and mentioned in text p. 75 (unpaginated)
Iowa City Press-Citizen. "Mural Painted By Philip Guston Is Prize Winner." August 1, 1941, illus. in b&w
Hinkle, Karl. ''Artist Must Bridge Gap Between Artists and Public: Guston Expresses Sentiment of Today's Young American Painter." Daily Iowan, October 9, 1941, p. 4, mentioned in text as 'The large outdoor painting on the facade of the Federal Works Agency building at the New York World's fair', not illus.
"Work and Play" mural by Phillip Guston for Queensbridge Houses Community Center. Dedication program. New York: Work Projects Administration Arts Program, March 18, 1941, mentioned in text p. 3, not illus.
Omaha World-Herald. "Gains Fame for Murals: Building at Capital Gets Work by Iowan." May 17, 1942, mentioned in text, not illus.
Janson, H. W. "'Martial Memory' by Philip Guston and American Painting Today." Bulletin of the City Art Museum of Saint Louis, December 1942, pp. 34–41, mentioned in text p. 39, not illus.
Austin American. "2nd in Series of Exhibitions Opens Tuesday: Thon, Guston and Shulkin Work to Be Presented." July 30, 1944, mentioned in text, not illus.
Larkin, Oliver W. Art and Life in America. New York: Rinehart, 1949, mentioned in text p. 426 as "Maintaining America's Skills", not illus.
Genauer, Emily. "Guston 'Negatives' versus Impressionist Positives." New York Herald Tribune, January 16, 1966, p. 27, mentioned in text, not illus.
Moritz, Charles, ed. Current Biography Yearbook 1971. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1971, pp. 176-178, mentioned in text p. 176, not illus.
O'Connor, Francis V., ed. The New Deal Art Projects: An Anthology of Memoirs. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972, illus. in b&w p. 255 Figure 49 and mentioned in text pp. 254 and 256
Cone, Michèle. The Roots & Routes of Art in the 20th Century. New York: Horizon Press, 1975, mentioned in text p. 171, not illus., listed as "Maintaining America's Skills"
Craig, Lois, and the Staff of the Federal Architecture Project. The Federal Presence: Architecture, Politics, and Symbols in United States Government Buildings. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1978, illus. in b&w p. 408
O'Connor, Francis V., ed. "Philip Guston and Political Humanism." In Arts and Architecture in the Service of Politics, edited by Henry A. Milton and Linda Nochlin. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1978, Fig. 2 illus. in b&w p. 347 and mentioned in text pp. 345 and 349
Dawn of a New Day The New York World's Fair 1939/40. Exh. cat. New York: Queens Museum and New York University Press, 1980., illus. in color p. 89 and mentioned in text p. 65
Hanson, Bernard. "Guston's Fine Lines and Gray Areas." Hartford Courant, August 23, 1981, p. G2, mentioned in text, not illus.
Social Concern and Urban Realism: American Paintings of the 1930s. Exh. cat. American Federation of the Arts, 1983, mentioned in text p. 55, not illus.
Philip Guston: The Late Works. Exh. cat. Melbourne: The National Gallery of Victoria, 1984, mentioned in text p. 60 as part of Chronology, not illus.
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston by His Daughter. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988, illus. in b&w no. 11 (following p. 18) and mentioned in text p. 31
Feaver, William. "Have His KKK and Eat It." Observer (London), June 25, 1989, p. 41, mentioned in text, not illus.
Philip Guston: In Context. Exh. cat. Oxford: The Museum of Modern Art Oxford, 1989, mentioned in text, not illus.
Abramson, Glenda, ed. The Blackwell Companion to Jewish Culture from the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Oxford: Blackwell, 1989, mentioned in text p. 296 as "Maintaining America's Skills", not illus.
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston by His Daughter. 1988. Reprint, New York: Penguin, 1990, illus. in b&w no. 11 (following p. 18) and mentioned in text p. 31
Graham-Dixon, Andrew. "Laughing in the Dark." Independent Magazine, February 23, 1991, pp. 48–52, mentioned in text p. 52, not illus.
Curtis, Anthony. "Portrait of an action painter." Financial Times (London), February 23/24, 1991, section Weekend FT, p. XVI, mentioned in text, not illus.
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston. 1988. Reprint, London: Thames and Hudson, 1991, illus. in b&w no. 11 (following p. 18) and mentioned in text p. 31
Jenkins, Herman L. New York City Department of Personnel Annual Report, FY 1993, illus. in b&w p. 5
American Art in the 20th Century: Painting and Sculpture 1913–1993. Exh. cat. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1993, mentioned in text p. 68, not illus.
Shapiro, Michael Edward. "Philip Guston: The War Years." Print Collector's Newsletter, September–October 1994, mentioned in text p. 128, not illus.
Graham-Dixon, Andrew. Paper Museum: Writing on Painting, Mostly. London: Harper Collins Publishers, 1996, mentioned in text p. 202, not illus.
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston. Reprint, Boston: Da Capo Press, 1997, illus. in b&w no. 11 (following p. 18) and mentioned in text p. 31
Philip Guston: Working Through the Forties. Exh. cat. Iowa City: University of Iowa Museum of Art, 1997, illus. in b&w p. 10
Philip Guston Tableaux / Paintings 1947 - 1979. Exh. cat. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Publishers, 2000, mentioned in text p. 130, not illus.
Botelho, Manuel. Guston em contexto: até ao regresso da figura. Lisbon: Livros Vendaval, 2007, illus. in b&w p. 43 and mentioned in text pp. 43-44
Baskind, Samantha. Encyclopedia of Jewish American Artists. London: Greenwood Press, 2007, mentioned in text p. 137, not illus.
Shoemaker, Innis Howe. Adventures in Modern Art: The Charles K. Williams II Collection. Exh. cat. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009, mentioned in text p. 169, not illus.
Pollock, Jackson, Francesca Pollock, Silvia Winters Pollock, and Charles Pollock. American Letters: 1927–1947, Jackson Pollock & Family. Malden: Polity, 2011, mentioned in text p. 156
Pfeiffer, Ingrid, and Max Hollein, eds. Philip Guston Das Grosse Spatwerk/Late Works. Exh. cat. Cologne: Strzeleckibooks, 2013, illus. in b&w fig. 5 p. 17 (Ingrid Pfeiffer essay) of Guston working on the mural sketch and mentioned in text p. 140 (English)/139 (German)
Baker, R. C. "Master Baffler: How Philip Guston Gave Form to Doubt." Village Voice, May 17, 2016, section Visual Arts. Online, mentioned in text, not illus.
Eaton, William. "Guston, Schapiro, Rosenberg,...Dialogue." Zeteo Journal, July 13, 2016. Online, illus. in b&w in endnotes
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston. 1988. Reprint, Munich: Sieveking Verlag; Zurich: Hauser & Wirth, 2016, illus. no. 20, illus. in b&w and mentioned in text p. 47
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: Un ritratto intimo di Philip Guston. Monza: Johan & Levi, 2017, illus. in b&w p. 42 and mentioned in text p. 41
The Paper (Shanghai). "疫情下的欧美艺术行业，重看大萧条时期罗斯福的新政." April 28, 2020. Online, illus. in b&w
Strick, Jeremy. "Opinion: The US Government Likely Won't Step Up With a New Deal for Art. But We Can Create Our Own With Public Art (and Private Sponsorship)." artnet News, May 4, 2020. Online, illus. in b&w photo of Guston working on mural
Mayer, Musa. Philip Guston. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2020, illus. in b&w p. 12, detail illus. in color of Guston painting mural p. 13 and mentioned in text p. 11
Cooper, Harry, Mark Godfrey, Alison de Lima Greene, and Kate Nesin. Philip Guston Now. Exh. cat. Washington D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2020, mentioned in text p. 225, not illus.
Storr, Robert. Philip Guston: A Life Spent Painting. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2020, illus. in b&w p. 285 (along with several images of Guston working on the mural), No. 6 illus in b&w p. 19 as part of a photo of Guston working on the mural, illus. in b&w p. 286 as part of a photo of Guston and as part of a newspaper clipping and mentioned in text pp. 22, 285 and 286
Tallman, Susan. "Philip Guston's Discomfort Zone: How is it that the artist, dead these forty years, is still pushing our buttons?" New York Review of Books, January 14, 2021, pp. 12-15, mentioned in text p. 13, not illus.
Coolidge, Clark, ed. Philip Guston: Que peindre sinon l'énigme. Translated by Éric Suchère. Strasbourg: L'Atelier Contemporain, 2023, mentioned in text p. 32, not illus.
Mayer, Musa. Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston. 1988. Reprint, Zurich: Hauser & Wirth, 2023, illus. no. 20, illus. in b&w and mentioned in text p. 47
Dunbar, Max. "The Daily Struggle: Philip Guston and American Art in the 1930s." PhD diss. Washington University in St. Louis, 2024, illus. in b&w Fig. 4.1 p. 192
Philip Guston: The Irony of History. Paris: Editions Gallimard, 2025, illus. no. 28 illus. in b&w p. 47 and mentioned in text pp. 24 and 198
Murphy, John P. New Deal Art: Culture and Crisis in the Great Depression. London: Thames & Hudson, 2025, mentioned in text, not illus.
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Title
Work the American Way (Maintaining America's Skills)
Date
1939
Medium
Chlorinated rubber paint on cement
Dimensions
456 × 456 in. (1158.2 × 1158.2 cm)
Catalogue Number
P39.003
Provenance
Destroyed
Exhibitions
No exhibitions listed
Bibliography
Downloads