Play and the Artist’s Creative Process: The Work of Philip Guston and Eduardo Paolozzi

Play and the Artist’s Creative Process explores a continuity between childhood play and adult creativity. The volume examines how an understanding of play can shed new light on processes that recur in the work of Philip Guston and Eduardo Paolozzi. Both artists’ distinctive engagement with popular culture is seen as connected to the play materials available in the landscapes of their individual childhoods. Animating or toying with material to produce the unforeseen outcome is explored as the central force at work in the artists’ processes. By engaging with a range of play theories, the book shows how the artists’ studio methods can be understood in terms of game strategies.

Elly Thomas is an artist and independent scholar. She received her PhD from the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL. She has taught at UCL and the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK.