Canal

Artist Philip Guston (American, born Canada, 1913 - 1980)

Date1958

MediumOpaque, matte paint on paper mounted to board

DimensionsUnframed: 21 7/8 × 29 3/4 inches (55.56 × 75.57 cm)
Framed: 28 1/4 × 36 1/4 inches (71.76 × 92.08 cm)

Credit LineGift of William Inge

Object number68-46

Signedb.r. "Philip Guston"

On View

Not on view

Collections

Modern Art

Terms

DescriptionAbstract composition in reds, pinks, black, greys, olive, and mustard. Dark areas center to bottom and upper left. Mustard arrow shape right center.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Masters of American Watercolor, Mid-American Arts Alliance, October 1979-January 1981.

Gallery Label

Gray, red, yellow and brown shapes bump and jostle against a background of soft pinks and grays in this painting. Its title likely refers to Canal Street, a traffic hub and bustling commercial district in New York’s Lower Manhattan, where the artist once lived. Throughout his life, Guston explored the borders between realism and abstraction in his art.

Provenance

On consignment from the artist to Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, stock no. 8246, by September 23, 1959 [1];

Purchased from Sidney Janis Gallery by William Inge (1913-1973), Los Angeles, CA, September 23, 1959-1968 [2];

His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1968.

NOTES:

[1] According to Jeanie Deans, Carroll Janis Gallery, in email correspondence with MacKenzie Mallon, Provenance Specialist, April 23, 2025, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

[2] See note 1. Inge is best known as a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. He and Guston met in St. Louis, Missouri in the late 1940s, when they were both teaching at Washington University. See Dore Ashton, Yes, but…A Critical Study of Philip Guston (New York: Viking Press, 1976), 73. Inge consigned this work to Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York on March 25, 1968, but it was not sold and was shipped to the Nelson-Atkins directly from Marlborough-Gerson in December 1968, according to Marissa Moxley, Marlborough Gallery, in email correspondence with MacKenzie Mallon, Provenance Specialist, April 23, 2025, Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.