Analysis of Cy Twombly and his work

            Cy Twombly was an American painter, sculpture and photographer, however I am going to focus on his paintings. His large scale, expressive and calligraphic pieces are in collections in most of the modern museums/galleries around the world. As he focuses on these aspects, he always manages to include his mood into his pieces. Twombly was also a part of the post-abstract expressionist generation.

            Twombly attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina when he first met Charles Olson, who was the head of the college. Olson was also a poet and deeply inspired Twombly with his pieces; Twombly looked further into literature and that is how he got into his type of work. Moreover, in 1957, Twombly moved to Rome and settled down with his wife and soon to be son. These then resulted in him looking deeper into the Roman and Greek literature/mythology; I would get my inspiration from maybe looking at books about animal cruelty. He would also take some of his inspiration from his surroundings.

            Most of his work is made on a canvas with a layer of white or off white with a few exceptions (an example of an exception is the first image below). I am going to use a canvas when creating a final piece as they are easily accessible. Additionally, I am going to use a plain tonal palette in the piece with small amounts of colour (for example, I am going to use red to represent the pain and anger of the animals that are being abused).

Source 1



Source 2


Source 1:
Cy Twombly

2009

Acrylic on canvas

Leaving Paphos Ringed With Waves

Source 2:

Cy Twombly

Acrylic and wax crayon

2007

Untitled

           Although the colour scheme in source 1 is not the same as the majority of his work, it still appears to be expressive and inspirational. I think that the colours blue and yellow complement each other well due to the fact that they are both primary colours, however I don’t think that the orange works well in this case. I think that both the writing and other features in the painting looks childlike, which is his style of work. Although it is childlike, it still evokes a specific mood to me; I think that he was feeling confused at the time because I am slightly confused by the colours that are used. In my opinion, it reminds me of a pop art piece because of the striking and vibrant colours. He hasn’t used a variety of textures or techniques because I think that he was fixed on trying to convey his feelings through the painting and he did not want anything to compromise that. Furthermore, there is not a strong contrast in line as throughout the piece, the same technique of painting has been used. I think he has used acrylic paint because it can layer easy and it is very accessible. The lines in this painting give me the impression that he was also distressed when composing this piece as the orange lines appear to be very chaotic. He uses specific words or sentences (like the ones in this piece), to further convey his emotion or feelings to the viewers.

            Meanwhile, in source 2, Twombly has used a common colour palette in his body of work (he has used an off white in the background with red layered over the top). The shape of the red spots on the piece resemble a kind of flower (almost like a rose), which reinforces the fact that he occasionally worked from his surroundings. Despite the fact that he uses canvases a lot, he changed his background medium so that he could do a specific technique when he produced this work; he wanted to be able to scratch into the piece and make clear indentations. The colour red gives me the impression of pain and torment which could suggest that something had happened when he produced this work to make him feel that way. Rather than sticking to the mediums he usually used, he chose to use oil pastels as when they have been layered, it is easy to subtract some of it from the piece (in this case, his scratching method). I think Twombly manages to achieve a suitable amount of contrast in tone, as the more he layered his oil pastel, the darker the sections would get; some areas of the piece, are extremely layered and therefore very dark and deep.

            To conclude, from observing and analysing Twombly’s work, I have decided that I am going to try and use some of his styles and techniques in my project. I really like the idea of using words to describe both the piece and the project in my work, which is why I am going to use words that describe the harshness and brutality of animal cruelty. I also like how he uses a plain tonal palette in his backgrounds (I don’t like his use of vibrant colours), which is why I am going to take this as inspiration and attempt to work with it. Additionally, I am going to use the red and black to symbolise pain and torment that some animals have to go through. After I experiment with this style of work, I think I am going to combine it with aspects from artists, ROA’s work.