As an artist, Cy Twombly (1928 - 2011) was one of the most creative painters and sculptors of the 20th century. Armed with a drawing style that yielded tottering yet graceful lines that were likened to “the trace of this light swarm of bees,’’ he sought new possibilities of artistic expression. Twombly’s photographic works provide a very significant key to understanding the sensitive eye that gave birth to the artist’s painting. Showing us what the artist looked at in his everyday life and the approach he brought to his creation of works of art.

Cy Twombly has encapsulated the personal and intimate space he was living in and his private moments in photographs, these works giving us a glimpse of light, shadows and colors in a way in which they were seen through his eyes. Cy Twombly’s work has always been perceived and enjoyed as literary and poetic experiences. This art can also be described as possessed of an aesthetic that is detached from the visual reality of the objects we see before us, and goes beyond being depictions of physical objects. 

 

‘I SHOW THINGS IN FLUX’

His photographs are not meant to surprise with astonishing images or singular subjects. Rather, they touch the viewers like thoughts from fragmented poems, and appear as mysterious memories. Twombly’s work extends beyond the medium’s category, time and space, but a sort of freedom, liberty and exhilaration.

 

    

His method of changing the subject matter in simple compositions appears to have been a form of experimentation. 

 

Credit: Cy Twombly

Photographs: Lyrical Variations