339: Goodby, Cy Twombly RIP

Cy Twombly, Poems to the Sea, 1959 (suite of 24)
Oil, graphite and wax crayon on paper,
XIX XX XXI XXII XXIII XXIV

After an unscheduled sleep, in front of an unscheduled showing of Coraline on DVD, I awake to the sad news that Cy Twombly has passed. He was the greatest of the great 20^th Century American painters. Barely known outside the art world (unlike the mammoth fame that perverted and destroyed Warhol and Pollock) but so highly loved and respected within. He has been my favourite painter since his unusual name caught my eye in 2004, and the university library yielded a gorgeous glossy Twombly book.

He left America many years ago to live a peaceful painterly life in Italy, where he continued making beautiful abstract scribbles, like carpenter's pencilled notes on a paint-stained scrap of gigantic paper. As far as I can see he lived a dream life of relaxed medium success ; not scraping by and not distracted by fame. He lived to the ripe old age of 83, and died on July 5^th 2011 leaving behind paintings, friends and family. He will be missed.

Cy Twombly, Pan 1975 (private collection)

One of my prized possessions is the Cy Twombly book Cycles and Seasons (currently asking obscene prices on Amazon) which features images of many beautiful paintings and curious sculptures of found wood and wire and white house-paint. Here I have scanned some favourite images I have not seen elsewhere online ; and do so in tribute to the great artist, may he rest in peace.

Cy Twombly Cycles and Seasons book cover, featuring
Quattro Stagioni, 1993-5, Part III: Autunno (detail)

I wonder what he was working on when he died ; what wonderful incomplete or recently completed works of art. What will happen to the value of his work, and when there will next be a retrospective in Great Britain I can attend. I'll stop talking now as I have little to say, and have spent too much time saying it. I'll let the paint dabs and pencil lines speak for themselves, about themselves.

For a proper, knowledgeable and wonderful obituary please go to The Guardian's Cy Twombly obituary "American artist who drew on the high culture of the past to forge a distinctive, at times thrilling, body of work".

Cy Twombly, Untitled (A Painting in Two Parts), 1986
Part I: oil paint on canvas
Part II: acrylic on paper

Cy Twombly, Orpheus (Du Unendliche Spur), 1979
Wood, nails, white paint, pencil

235: Cy Twombly; No Offence Intended

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 17^th 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.