MORTON FELDMAN:
'FOR PHILIP GUSTON'
PROGRAM:
Morton FELDMAN - FOR PHILIP GUSTON (1984)
[duration: ca. 4 hours 30 minutes]
Christine Tavolacci, flutes
Brendan Nguyen, piano and celesta
Jonathan Hepfer, percussion
Morton FELDMAN - FOR PHILIP GUSTON (1984)
[duration: ca. 4 hours 30 minutes]
Christine Tavolacci, flutes
Brendan Nguyen, piano and celesta
Jonathan Hepfer, percussion
Monday Evening Concerts joins Hauser & Wirth to present a one-night-only performance of Morton Feldman’s For Philip Guston. This event celebrates the first solo Los Angeles exhibition in over half a century dedicated to American artist Philip Guston, Resilience: Philip Guston in 1971, curated by the artist’s daughter, Musa Mayer.
Composed in 1984, ‘For Philip Guston,’ a nearly five-hour trio, is Morton Feldman’s poignant homage to Guston, touching on friendship, intransigence, affection, memory, loss, and love.
Composed in 1984, ‘For Philip Guston,’ a nearly five-hour trio, is Morton Feldman’s poignant homage to Guston, touching on friendship, intransigence, affection, memory, loss, and love.
Ticket Information: This event is free to attend, and reservations are required. Extremely limited seating is first come first served throughout the evening, with ample standing room. Guests are encouraged to come and go throughout the performance. Click here to book your spot.
Date and Time: Monday, November 11, 2019 | 6:30pm
Location: Hauser & Wirth | 901-909 E 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Date and Time: Monday, November 11, 2019 | 6:30pm
Location: Hauser & Wirth | 901-909 E 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90013
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
"Years ago there was a game Philip Guston and I used to play. We were the last artists." - Morton Feldman
"Years ago there was a game Philip Guston and I used to play. We were the last artists." - Morton Feldman
In the 1950s and 60s, Morton Feldman struck up close friendships with two artists who deeply informed his life as a composer: John Cage and Philip Guston. During the course of each friend's life, Feldman witnessed transformations which comprise chapters now iconic in the history of Western art: Cage fully embracing chance as a compositional construct, and Guston returning to figurative art after decades of abstract expressionism. Feldman was left to navigate the space between them.
Following this development in Guston's practice in the 1970s, Feldman (fully committed to the ethos of abstraction) was unsure of his position toward his friend's new work. This friction caused a gulf between the friends from which they never fully recovered. Despite this rift, in 1977, Guston painted Friend - to M.F., a portrait of Feldman with a massive ear and smoking a cigarette in profile. When Guston died in 1980, Feldman delivered the Kaddish at his late friend's funeral.
Although the two never resolved their differences, they preserved a deep affection and lasting respect for one another. Visiting Guston's studio to view his dear departed friend's last works, Feldman still struggled to make sense of where he and Guston lost their common understanding of the world. "I have resistance," he said, "in talking to anyone who could tell me why Guston assembled these last works the way he did. My attitude is not unlike my father refusing to ask for directions the time we were lost in Hoboken."
Written in 1984, three years before Feldman's own death, Feldman produced his nearly five-hour trio For Philip Guston, a poignant homage to a dearly departed friend that touches upon friendship, intransigence, affection, searching, memory, loss, and love.
- Jonathan Hepfer
Following this development in Guston's practice in the 1970s, Feldman (fully committed to the ethos of abstraction) was unsure of his position toward his friend's new work. This friction caused a gulf between the friends from which they never fully recovered. Despite this rift, in 1977, Guston painted Friend - to M.F., a portrait of Feldman with a massive ear and smoking a cigarette in profile. When Guston died in 1980, Feldman delivered the Kaddish at his late friend's funeral.
Although the two never resolved their differences, they preserved a deep affection and lasting respect for one another. Visiting Guston's studio to view his dear departed friend's last works, Feldman still struggled to make sense of where he and Guston lost their common understanding of the world. "I have resistance," he said, "in talking to anyone who could tell me why Guston assembled these last works the way he did. My attitude is not unlike my father refusing to ask for directions the time we were lost in Hoboken."
Written in 1984, three years before Feldman's own death, Feldman produced his nearly five-hour trio For Philip Guston, a poignant homage to a dearly departed friend that touches upon friendship, intransigence, affection, searching, memory, loss, and love.
- Jonathan Hepfer