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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Draw Them In, Paint Them Out: Trenton Doyle Hancock Confronts Philip Guston

Philip Guston, Riding Around, 1969.

Until Mar 30, 2025
1109 5th Ave, New York, NY 10128, USA

The Canadian-American artist Philip Guston used the white robes and pointed hoods of the Ku Klux Klan to portray blasé baddies going about their day—smoking cigarettes, grabbing coffee, filling up their gas tanks. His message: evil is woven into the fabric of the everyday. Now, Trenton Doyle Hancock, a Black contemporary artist from Houston, has selected some of Guston’s most striking Klansmen to be guests of this show. He then responds to the images with his own works. Also on view is Hancock’s 2014 series, “Epidemic! Presents: Step and Screw,” in which a Black superhero named Torpedo interacts with the white-robed figures. —Elena Clavarino

Photo: © The Estate of Philip Guston