So Long Cy

CY TWOMBLY 1928-2011

Cy Twombly

Untitled

I always liked Cy.  First of all, I liked his name. The sounds rolled around in my mouth enunciating the "tw", drawing out the short "o",  and then blowing out the lips "mbly".  I liked that he always marched to his own drum, settling in Italy rather than New York, and never in step with any ongoing "isms".  The joy of creating is described aptly, when he described that each line that he made was "the actual experience...it does not illustrate.  It is the sensation of its own realization."  Years later, he described more explicitly, "It's more like I'm having an experience than making a picture." Dada was an early interest and influence.  Soon out of art school,  he used the Surrealist method of working in the dark so as to rely on his instincts and liberate himself from the very art school techniques he had just learned.  He worked nearly up to his death, completing a 2010 ceiling painting commission for the Louvre, before he succumbed to a battle with cancer. Cy Twombly was an inspiration  for his inventiveness;  forging fearlessly into the future without a lot of fanfare.  His unique marks will live on, and on, and on.