Excerpted from May 19, 1962 The Nation.
”Fluctuating between narcissism and self-disgust, unwillingly forced to accept ever newer responsibilities, and pondering his problems past alertness into fatigue, Guston gives the impression of an enormously timid artist.
Yet, how moving is that timidity.”
Guston, timid? But I think there’s truth in Kozloff’s claim. A kind of existential timidity might be part of the peculiar, creative complex that is expressed in his strongest work.