Artist Research
Cy Twombly
“Although at first glance the graffiti-like scribbles and scratches of Cy Twombly’s work might resemble art made by a naughty child of Jackson Pollock, it is nothing of the kind: it is the work of an erudite, sophisticated, and emotional painter. Whereas the work of Pollock and the Abstract Expressionists emerged in 1940s New York, where their existential inner dramas were enacted against the acutely felt backdrop of World War II, Twombly’s work was part of the next generation, emerging during the 1950s in Europe – a Europe that was trying to forget and rebuild. Twombly, based for the most part in Rome, thus focused on his immediate surroundings, responding to the history and beauty he found there, combining aspects of both traditional European sources and the new American painting.”
“Writing and language also served as major conceptual foundations for Twombly’s mostly abstract art. In addition to the written word – in the form of poems, myths, and histories – he also focused on the process of writing, both by sketching unidentifiable doodles and splotches or words directly onto the canvas and by creating line-based compositions, often inspired by handwriting. Through these methods, he was often able to suggest subtle narratives that lay beneath the surfaces of his paintings.”
Quotes from:
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-twombly-cy.htm
I can’t say I ‘liked’ Cy Twombly’s drawings, but I did however find them interesting, particularly having done the emotional drawing exercise in Assignment 1, as I could see some similarities between his lines and mine and wondered had he been trying to convey the same emotions?
“Bacchus” by Cy Twombly
This image reminded me of my ‘anger’ drawings, although they definitely had more circularity and less angles than mine. I also liked the way in which he deliberately allowed the paint to drip which made me think of losing control. Having completed my drawings in a restricted colour palette and then having seen these it also made me really want to use colour to add to the emotion of a drawing as here the bright red seems to convey some kind of rage which I felt I couldn’t quite achieve using tones of grey, blue and black. I also liked reading that Twombly often used his hands to manipulate a drawing or painting which was something I liked doing with my mark-making drawings, smudging charcoal or pastel with my fingers while focussing on the emotion I was trying to display.
Also read:
Denise McHale 