Post 1: Cy Twonbly

Cy Twombly (born April 25, 1928) is an American artist well known for his large scale, freely-scribbled, calligraphic style graffiti paintings; on solid fields of mostly grey, tan or off-white colors. Twombly is best known for blurring the line between drawing and painting. Many of his best-known paintings of the late 1960s are reminiscent of a school blackboard someone has practiced cursive handwriting of letter "e" and "'s" on, or hundreds of years of bathroom graffiti on a wall in his paintings of the late 1950s and early 1960s).

Borrowing from the idea from surrealism, he experimented with sketching in the dark. For a time, he also forced himself to draw with his left hand.Twombly had at this point done away with painting a representational subject matter, citing the line or smudge, each mark with its own history, as its own subject. Later, many of his paintings and works on paper move into "romantic symbolism", as titles can be visually interpreted through shapes and forms and words. Twombly often quoted the poet Stephane Mallarme, as well as countless myths and allegories in his works. Examples of this are his famous work Apollo And The Artist, or a series of eight drawings consisting solely of the word "VIRGIL".

"Oh my, you call that art?!" i think i can already imagine how most people would respond when i show them the painting of Cy Twonbly. They looks like scribbles of children under a magnifying glass. His works are similar to those produced from pop artist like Jackson Pollocks because works from them have no definate form or subject matter. They are messy, calligraphic scribbles, have no central focus, no concentration of effect to draw attention to.They are created with the intention to bring out the most true and basic idea of the artist which is yet to be contructed into a complete picture.They just have to pick out the paint brush (or a bottle of paint in the case of Pollocks) and move according the motion where their instincts tell them to directly without too much consideration.The instantanous emotions is hence best brought up through this kind of action painting. The dripping and flowing of paint is spontaneous and unrepeatable, so it will the the one and only piece in the world as it can never be cloned.

As you look closer to it, you will find that through the fegmented lines and patches of colours, you will feel a strong emotion coming within you, wheter it's fear, disturbed or peace. Everyone responds differently towards an artwork, and i think that is meaningful as there is interaction between the art and its audience, and it make the painting something we experience as much as we see.

9:05 PM ·