Cy Twombly 1923-2011

Twombly was an American painter, sculptor and photographer. His artwork is regarded to have influenced the likes of Anselm Kiefer, Jean Michael Basquiat and Francisco Clemente. I find Twombly’s work very visually interactive and somewhat freeing and inspiring to look at, this is due to the freedom in the movement and mark-making in both his paintings and works on paper.

His painted art works are mainly large-scale pieces, with freely scribbled, with a level of purity of movement which I admire greatly. his work also has a calligraphic, almost graffiti-esque look to it. I think this is due to the scale, but also down to the background of his paintings being so plain in contrast to his back ground of predominantly grey, tan / off white; giving the look of a plain wall- then drawn and painted on to.

Some of Twomblys art pieces I particularly am interested in are his later works where he quotes poets; such as Keats, Rilke and Mallarme- as well as elements of mythology. As shown in his pieces entitled ‘Apollo’ and ‘Virgil’. I've always found it really fascinating to see the different texts people use within their art work, so I would defiantly like to have a go at incorporating some written parts to my next piece of work.

"Lines have a great affect on Painting" - Cy Twombly

Twombly’s artwork reminds me that paintings don’t have to be filled, nor full of colour and vibrancy; in fact that areas of negative space can be very impactful on an overall work of art. I’m planning on looking at textures during the next part of the negotiated project, and I think Twombly’s style would lend itself to this very successfully.

This piece, entitled " Souvenir de L'Ile des Saintes", stood out to me especially due to the colours. It's an 8part watercolour, pastel and gouache work on paper, I really enjoy the textures made through Twomblys experimental style of mark-making within his work as its clear in several of the paintings that he has used his fingers to directly spread and mix the paint; this effect of fluid movement along side the more vibrant colours of the gouache and pastels give the images a strong sense of movement and remind me of the texture of clouds, pebbles and water. I find it really interesting how such "simple" artworks can bring through certain memories and emotion, but Twombly's work does this well, for me at least.