The American artist Edwin Parker (Cy) Twombly Jr (born April 25, 1928) has an exhibit in Vienna's Mumok.
Twombly is known for his gestural, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings with letter-like signs, his scribbling and doodling, his symbols of ancient mythology on monumental canvases.
I have the feeling it will need some time to get closer to Twombly's work, some of the pictures have impressed me very much, because of their radiant colours, their vibrancy and irony. For example, I was very attracted by the "Wilder Shores of Love"(see above).
Here's an interview with the artist and below a video from the Tate where the Tate's Director Nicholas Serota gives a behind the scenes tour of the Cy Twombly exhibition as he makes the final adjustments to the hang just before opening. Serota talks about Twombly's technique, his relationship to Turner, and how the artist, now in his eighties, is still producing some of the most vital work of his career.
10 comments:
like his school blackboard-like work of the 1960s
Yes, that's great. As a teacher, I felt immediately at home .. ;-)
I know Twombly's work almost exclusively through "Fifty Days at Ilium," which takes up a large room at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where, judging by the comments I hear from both patrons and security guards when I'm there, appears to be the most controversial work in the entire museum. Thanks for teaching me a bit more about his work....
YogaforCynics,
thank you for this interesting piece of information. I'll have to google the "Fifty Days"!
Nothing to do with Twombly, but you might like to listen to Stuart of Belle and Sebastian on his new project. It's here in the second half of the show.
Thank you, Rob!
I've heard of the project, actually wanted to blog about it - but with the end-of-term approaching it just didn't happen.
However, the interview provides lots of additional information, maybe there's a chance of a holiday blog on this. Stuart's Scottish accent always makes me smile.
You are very welcome, Francessa- glad to be your UK media correspondent. You might also like this morning's Radio 3 programme on Dublin in music, which featured much fascinating stuff on Joyce.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lfm35
Whew, Francessa! I'm catching up with your latest post and this one is so interesting. If I could own "Wilder Shores of Love" I would be a very happy collector indeed! I'm quite taken with it. And, like you, I'll Google the piece that Yoga mentioned in his comments. Now I'm going to look at the video...
:)
Hi Rob,
how nice to have a UK media-correspondent! Unfortunately, I missed the programme on Dublin music - it was only on for seven days.
Lydia, I wouldn't mind myself to have the "Wilder Shores of Love" in my living room. Maybe we should compile a list of all the paintings we'd like to own?
Francessa
greetings from Australia :) I am hoping you can help me with a question about Twombly's technique;
my question is actually about the drips of paint that feature in his works , particularly in the bacchus series . I'm wondering if they are naturally forming from his brush strokes or perhaps added once he has done the brush strokes - possibly watering down the medium to get it to run so consistently ?
I hope you can help, I'm quite baffled by it !
Post a Comment