Cy Twombly was the name that jumped off the paper to me all those years ago back in the first year of university as an art student. We were given a list of artists whose practice included mark making and told to investigate further and draw and sketch as much as possible. Collecting scraps of paper and compiling stuff into sketch books and note pads. I really can’t remember anyone else off the list, but the name Cy Twombly was so unique and unusual it had to be worth a look.There’s a great blog post at the Guardian written by a fellow art ponce called Jonathan Jones. It’s all about how Cy Twombly is the real thing, and it’s true, he is. As Jonathan Jones snobbishly, but completely correctly puts it, “Banksy is a thick person's idea of a radical artist. Twombly is a thinking person's.” Spot on. View a gallery of the exhibition highlights from Cy’s Tate Modern show of 2008 here. I missed it, and so far have only managed to see his monumental Four Seasons at the Tate Modern and a couple of his smaller blackboard drawings at Tate Liverpool. That’s the problem with not living in London where the international art scene is amazing. Here in Manchester the art scene is picking up, but the international scene is not great. Having said that I still haven’t seen the Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery; so boo to me. I’ll see it tomorrow, I promise.
I digress; back to Cy Twombly. Whatever it is that I love about Twombly I haven’t quite pinned down. It’s something purely aesthetic I think; I just like the way it looks. Art doesn’t always need to be a technical expression of skill, or a conceptual exercise in thought. Sometimes it can just be a big, beautiful scribble on a 10 foot tall piece of paper. Sometimes it can be a stick nailed to a box and painted white. I’ve done the decent thing and pinched a load of photos off the ol’ google images, so y’all can take a wee peek at the beauties.
After work today I dropped into BLANKSPACE to see how the guys from No Offence Intended. The show opens at 6pm on Thursday 17th March 2011 (that’s the day after tomorrow!), and I guarantee you the art is looking good, the wine and beer will flow freely, St. Patrick and Bacchus will be looking down and smiling, and the artists will be on hand to discuss their work. The exhibition is loosely themed around personal interaction with religion and is expressed through sculpture, installation, sound, video, and installation art.
Come down to meet the teams of Blank Media Collective and No Offence Intended. I guarantee a good drunken arty night. 6-9pm Thursday – BLANKSPACE – 43 Hulme Street, Manchester, M15 6AW.
1 comment:
i know what you mean about cy twombly; there is just something there that makes your art buds jump and land with no words (for me anyway). the show was brilliant down london by the way.
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