Philip Guston spent the entirety of his career exploring the limits of creative expression. Untitled marks a pivotal moment of transition when the artist was engaging with both Abstract Expressionism and figurative painting in his work. His skillful handling of ink is evident in swooping, dancing forms which flicker in tonality, evoking an expressive quality and proving the artist’s mastery of form. At this point in his career, Guston questioned the notion that an artwork was a precious object and a result of personal expression by relying on basic formal elements– line, shape, use of color (or the absence of color) – to communicate meaning. He was fascinated by working in black-and-white, which allowed him to experiment with the various qualities of gesture and the different responses they elicit from the viewer. As Guston himself explains, "The painting is not on a surface, but on a plane which is imagined. It moves in a mind. It is not there physically at all. It is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see...Everything means something. Anything in life or in art, any mark you make has meaning and the only question is, 'what kind of meaning?' But then, it may be a matter simply of appetite, what one has a hunger for. There are painters, I almost said aesthetes, who do know what to make and how to make what they know" (Renée McKee, ed., Philip Guston Talking, The University of Minnesota, March, 1978). Here one can sense Guston’s affinity with art history and philosophy, as the work wrestles with dissolving and locating forms, its being and nothingness.