Cy Twombly

Dripping, flowing color, energetic yellow-orange-red squiggles combined with delicate, spidery handwriting. Four large-scale roses in bloom fill the wooden panels. Only on closer inspection do we notice the many details, especially the poems written by the artist on the canvases. The are part of a series of paintings that Cy Twombly dedicates to the rose.

In layers, Cy Twombly has applied oil paint, wax crayon, and handwritten text to this three-piece wooden support. Four dark purple shapes, reminiscent of floating boats, come to the fore. But there is no horizon or clearly defined landscape. Rather, the image consists of overlapping strokes, drops, and lines.

In this work, Cy Twombly’s “doodles” with chalk, crayon, and pencil almost look like writing. We even believe we can read individual letters and words from the lines—for example the names Cy and Nini. But the curved lines do not reveal any message.

The “Lepanto” cycle is one of Cy Twombly’s major works and consists of twelve paintings that are exhibited permanently in a separate room at Museum Brandhorst. Vibrant hues in a broad palette of yellows, reds, turquoise and aquamarine define the drama of the monumental paintings. The action on the canvases intensifies, all the artist’s painting tools and painterly gestures are used expressively.

The dryness of the dark gray picture looks like a slate, its size resembles that of a school blackboard. On it are irregular white lines and light-gray splashes of color. The lines in “Untitled (New York City)” run directly from the left to the right edge of the picture. Each single stroke registers that the artist has walked along the canvas, and how. We can see when he slows down, when the pressure of the chalk eases or intensifies, how short interruptions during the stride create kinks and loops, and how the lines approach each other, touch, and diverge again.