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The Tale

Philip Guston painted The Tale in nineteen sixty-one. It is oil painted on canvas, five foot eight inches by six feet wide. It is an abstract dense work of short frenetic brush strokes forming interlocked shapes with ragged edges. There is gray throughout and tan in the background around the edges. On the top right there is a patch of green, on the top left there is some dull red which is seen again around the center and at the bottom. Dark marigold appears at the center top, just above the middle and at the bottom left. In the center there is a lot of gray and three black shapes that give the impression of figures. On the left, a black vertical shape looks like it is sitting on a gray throne. In the middle, tight black horizontal brushstrokes form a silhouette like an ice cream cone, narrowing toward the bottom and rounded at the top. On the right is a thick black upside down exclamation point.

Across the top of the two figures on the right is a loose arc of dark blue scribbles with a patch of green and marigold above.