Philip Guston was born Philip Goldestein in 1913, in Montreal, Canada. His family moved to Los Angeles shortly after in 1916. His art training was mostly self-taught, but included 3 months at the Otis Art Institute in 1930, followed by a sojourn to Europe in 1934, where he met the Mexican muralists. Between 1935 and 1942, Guston painted murals for the Federal Arts Project, including the Building Façade for the New York World’s Fair in 1939.
Guston was active in teaching, with positions at the State University of Iowa, the Pratt Institute, and Boston University. It was during his time at BU, between 1973 and 1980, that his drawing career became very active. Although figurative, Guston’s, drawings gravitated towards an Expressive Abstraction, striving for universality. He used cartoon shapes to create a personal iconography.