SFX: Music 

NARRATOR:  

A mound of shoes. Colors the shade of raw meat. A jumble of tangled limbs. What is going on here? 

MICHAEL AUPING:  

How can you tell the truth, and yet still be an artist who’s compelling to people? 

NARRATOR:  

That’s curator Michael Auping – 

AUPING:  

Philip Guston felt that art was about affecting how people feel about society, what they do in society, their responsibility.  

NARRATOR:  

Guston made this painting in 1976, during a time of political unrest, just after the Vietnam War.  

AUPING:  

These are the shoes of everyday people, working class people. And there is a sole, S-O-L-E, and then there’s also a soul, S-O-U-L.  

There are many other symbols. Legs. I mean, Guston had these spindly legs too. But Guston was always moving in his painting between the personal and the social. He always saw it as a part to whole. Where do I fit with them? Where do they fit with me? I’m isolated in my studio painting; on the other hand, there’s this stuff going on outside in the world.  

And the legs refer to humanity. And you see these stacked up legs in his studio all the time. They’re there. The people outside of his studio. They’re always there with him.