1 of my favorite painters of the last century is philip guston, esp. his later work where he went back to figurative painting. but his figures are disturbing cartoons of eyeballs, cigarettes, klansmen in cars, pointing fingers and so on. politics and irony and aesthetics developed on a flattened palette. plus guston frequently collaborated with poets, the late stanley kunitz is one, where text and image counterbalance and compete on the canvas.

i've not looked at his work in years. yet some of the graffiti found in the background in the film children of men reminds me much of guston. and reminds me once again that art can be not just created in its process of making, it can transform its environment. sorta like stevens glass jar in tennessee.