Nikki Columbus on “Guston Can Wait”
<p>“Let’s stop talking about Philip Guston and start talking about structural racism.” This has been critic Nikki Columbus’s refrain through the past season, issuing what many considered the final word of a furious debate surrounding the postponement of a Guston retrospective. Titled “Guston Can Wait” and published in <em>n+1 </em>in October 2020, the text (which Columbus reads for the podcast) deftly summarizes the controversy’s main thrust—the vehemently-shared opinion that postponing the exhibition was a move based in institutional cowardice—before zooming out for the larger context in which museums are actively undermining and purging their own labor forces; that the Guston furor is distracting from these more pressing issues. “I did have fun writing this,” she admits, before stressing, “We have to let go of this myth that we’re more progressive than any other sector or business.”</p>
Authors: Sky Goodden, Lauren Wetmore
Contributors: Nikki Columbus
Editor: Jacob Irish
Music: Ulysses Castellanos
Producer: Sky Goodden, Lauren Wetmore
Assistant Producer: Mitra Shreeram
Part of: Momus: The Podcast