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The very fact that Twombly has used a literary source1, has used
the word, is itself rather Apollonian. Furthermore, Twombly, now
painting at some distance from the New York school of Abstract
Expressionism with which he was associated earlier in his career,
employs a kind of expressionistic naturalism in this sequence, a
sequence that presents a relatively clear and ordered narrative
form. By expressionistic naturalism I mean that the paintings –
especially Parts I and II – are clearly enough depictions of a
turbulent sea. This move to definition through naturalistic form
and an ordered narrative is Apollonian. Twombly adds a further
defining feature to Part I by writing in pencil the name Leandro
where the sea seems to give way to sky-obscuring spume and
haze.Yet at the same time, this sea is turbulent, it rears and curls in
mountainous waves; it dissolves Leander into a tangled,
convulsive knot of overwhelmed being. Turbulent seas suggesting
passion, wild nature, the dissolution of an individual into the
elements: these are Dionysian characteristics.
1
Various poets from Classical to Modern times have written poems based on the myth. In the last of Hero and
Leandro sequence, Twombly makes use of the last lines of Keats’s sonnet On a Picture of Leander
Cy Twombly - Hero and Leandro part 1
In terms of his methodology Twombly late era works have more
of an Apollonian character as in Hero and Leandro whilst
illuminating and energizing them with Dionysian characteristics,
in the last of this sequence Twombly uses impressionistic strokes
characteristic of Monet and it is interesting to note that some of
latest paintings have been pretty purely expressionistic paintings
of water and light and concerned with expression of naturalistic
phenomena.
In the Untitled works of the mid 50s that I have examined are of
the act, and the line with sensual colour which speaks of abandon
and joy, he uses red yellow and green in these two pieces, the
colours the child and basic formation of nature. These a recording
of the microcosm the creative act untamed and are largely
Dionysian in character.
In Ferragosto I think an interesting duality is evoked of the
whiteness which represents the Apollonian character, there are
allusions to pictorial themes largely to those of the effacement of
walls and obscene graffiti. In Ferragosto V the most thickly
encrusted canvas we get phalluses and testes, along with smears of
blood red and suggestions of marbled ejactulate. The colour is
highy suggestive and symbolic, the whiteness also eludes to graffti
and effacement, in deed the paintings seem to be marshelling of
the artists powers, to interject his very body onto that whiteness.
(of desire and fear) Whilst relying on its illusion of whiteness ( as
no canvas is pure white or perfectly smooth etc.) and purity to
sustain the joy in effacement and intoxication of the act. In this
sense the Dionysian act is sustained by the Apollonian illusion,
which is characteristic of Twombly's finest work I feel.
Bibliography