
Odessa
1977
Philip Guston's 1977 oil painting titled Odessa evokes the historical city through abstract expressionist brushwork and composition. The work reflects Guston's mature style combining figuration and abstraction.
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Location
- Sotheby's, New York, NY
- Spotted At
- Auction House · Sotheby'sView on map
🔨 Auction Lot
Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction
March 1, 2023
Estimate: $2,000,000 to $3,000,000
Lot 113
More by Philip Guston
Collectors with works by Philip Guston
Artists in conversation

Willem de Kooning
Dutch-American · b. 1904

De Kooning similarly merged figuration with gestural abstraction in oil on canvas, using thick expressive brushwork that hovers between recognizable form and pure painterly energy, closely mirroring Guston's mature hybrid approach in Odessa.

Leon Kossoff
British · b. 1926

Kossoff painted landscapes and urban scenes with heavily impastoed oil paint and rough figurative forms embedded in abstract expressionist surfaces, sharing Guston's commitment to place, memory, and the tension between representation and abstraction.

Frank Auerbach
British · b. 1931

Auerbach builds up densely layered oil paint with raw figurative gestures rooted in specific places and memories, creating works that balance abstraction and figuration in a way that closely parallels the emotional and material qualities seen in Odessa.
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