In 1958, the young Georg Baselitz saw “The New American Painting” in Berlin, and he was much taken by Philip Guston’s work. Baselitz’s “Heroes,” 1965-66, in turn anticipated Guston’s late “smokers” and “drinkers.” The last time a major show of Guston’s work came anywhere near Germany was in 1982, the heyday of Neo-Expressionism. This time around the question is, How will Guston’s late paintings of KKK hoods and whips fly in a unified Germany? Some fifty works from the ’40s to the ’70s should whet our appetites for Michael Auping’s full-scale Guston extravaganza at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in 2002.
