Since he was associated with New York and abstract expressionism, I'd always given his name the generic American pronunciation gus' tin. Then around 2004 there was a big retrospective of his work, and I noticed people began calling him Philip goo stahn'. So I looked it up and found out that he changed his name from Goldstein in his 20's while living in Los Angeles, which I guess means 'Gustin' can be pronounced however you like.-- Jim
After the answer came out I went and checked out Man Ray. A son of Jewish-Russian immigrants, he was born Emmanuel Radnitzky, but when he was 22 (1912) the family changed their family name to Ray. I guess the Man comes from Emmanuel. Neat, huh?
Pretty much a guess on my part based on the fact that 2 choices were already taken and I knew that Guston had experienced some discrimination against Jews, as a kid so might have wanted to have made his name less jewish sounding. I imagined someone with a bad speech impediment might pronounce Goldstein as something like Guston.
I'm definitely going with the Flannery principle when I make my name change.
8 comments:
I'm going for Palermo, on the 'Bud Flanagan' principle, i.e. if you're going to change your Jewish name, choose something Irish or Italian.
Man Ray?
I'm guessing Philip Guston
Bill Sharp has got it--Philip Guston.
Since he was associated with New York and abstract expressionism, I'd always given his name the generic American pronunciation gus' tin. Then around 2004 there was a big retrospective of his work, and I noticed people began calling him Philip goo stahn'. So I looked it up and found out that he changed his name from Goldstein in his 20's while living in Los Angeles, which I guess means 'Gustin' can be pronounced however you like.-- Jim
ulaca I like that Flanagan principle--if you're going to change the name you might as well go all out.-- Jim
Re: Man Ray.
After the answer came out I went and checked out Man Ray.
A son of Jewish-Russian immigrants, he was born Emmanuel Radnitzky, but when he was 22 (1912) the family changed their family name to Ray.
I guess the Man comes from Emmanuel. Neat, huh?
Pretty much a guess on my part based on the fact that 2 choices were already taken and I knew that Guston had experienced some discrimination against Jews, as a kid so might have wanted to have made his name less jewish sounding. I imagined someone with a bad speech impediment might pronounce Goldstein as something like Guston.
I'm definitely going with the Flannery principle when I make my name change.
I agree mister bijou, 'Man Ray' has got to be one of the coolest names ever. And those tastefully-done titty-shots never get old...
Bill Sharp, check back end of the week and I'll throw another tough one at you.
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