“My toddler could paint that”. You have probably heard this many times from people who are trying
to discredit modern art. From Pollock, to Malevich all the way to Picasso; who was famously quoted
for saying “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”
So perhaps, yes, your toddler could have painted that, or maybe,
as Susie Hodge suggests, they couldn’t.
But this video isn’t about the artistic talent of your toddler,
but about an artist who, when I first saw his paintings,
I immediately thought “if I had a toddler, they would be able to paint that”.
We’ll be taking a look at abstract expressionist Cy Twombly.
At the start of his career, Twombly was extremely influenced by Black Mountain College artists
such as Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell. For example, we can look at his 1951 Zyig,
made when he was only 23 years old and compare it to Kline’s compositions.
He later developed a more unique style in 1955 with,
notably, Academy. Instead of using paint like any other popular abstract expressionist of the time,
Twombly decided to mark his canvas with pencils.
It’s hard to tell what’s going on. It looks dirty, graffiti-like, rushed and free.
To be honest, the first image that came to mind when I saw this painting was an old bathroom stall
where visitors clumsily scratched indecipherable messages on its wall. The reason why these lines
could be messages instead of random marks is that we can see, if we look closely and attentively,
many different letters and sometimes even words. The only one I could find, for example, is here.
But Twombly didn’t stop there. He still innovated and found new ways
to paint subjects that mattered to him. For example, poetry and ancient mythology was one
of his main inspirations. This fascination for antiquity would push him to later move to Rome.
This passion for ancient mythology translated in his 1962 Leda and the Swan,
a myth in which Zeus turned into a swan to seduce Leda. He would then, still as a swan,
have intercourse with her. Here, the image explodes and violently spreads out to each
edge of the canvas. The few recognizable things are the title at the bottom right of the painting,
hearts symbolizing seduction and finally a window. The window is the only thing that
really looks out of place and it’s really hard to tell why it’s there.
Just like in Academy, the longer you look at this painting, the more you’ll find different
elements that help you understand it, yet it will still leave you puzzled.
Finally, this leads to the series of paintings you may know Twombly for, which also ties in
with the idea that your toddler could do it. This is his series of paintings reproducing,
what looks like, chalkboards. For example, Twombly would, with wax crayons,
imitate some Palmer Method Exercises, which are drills aimed at improving your handwriting.
Here, you can follow the artist’s movement, its repetition, its rhythm and, as you go along,
you can feel that rhythm accelerating. The strokes get more and more violent,
they get stretched out in a crescendo of action and, finally, Twombly impatiently
covers the blackboard with marks, applying them with as much gesture as possible.
This final violent phase will be echoed in Twombly’s two last series titled Bacchus, made
between 2003 and 2008 and Camino Real which will be his final paintings before his death in 2011.
Twombly’s work truly captivates me, but, to be honest, I don’t really know why. Why do I find
Twombly’s movement more interesting than, say, Pollock’s? Maybe it could be the repetition, the
rhythm or the idea that, by looking long enough at a Twombly, you start seeing encrypted messages.
When I look at one of these paintings, I feel like we’re on the brink of a formulated thought.
Something is about to reveal itself, we’re almost there, we just need a couple more words,
just a couple more letters. Perhaps this is why I’m entranced by Twombly’s work:
I don’t necessarily understand it now, but I feel like I’m about to.
Maybe just looking for a couple more minutes will allow me to see something more, find a word,
find an image, find a feeling. Twombly’s paintings have this ability to prompt curiosity.
Thank you for watching! We’d like to thank Isaac and all of our supporters on Patreon!