UnCultured

Cy Twombly - The Rose VI (1998)

Cy Twombly - Orpheus

Cy Twombly by Horst P. Horst for Vogue (1966)

Cy Twombly - Odi di Orazio,1968 (one of 16 part series)

“In this series Twombly (as usual) focuses on ancient Roman poetry as his source material. He translates the poet Horace’s Odes (23-13 BC) into nothing but abstracted scrawling, at times barely recognizable as a language at all. His intent is to illustrate a fundamental phenomenon of a civilized society’s communication: that a collection of agreed upon symbols (letters) can have a shared meaning to facilitate the transfer of thoughts. To emphasize this fact, Twombly further abstracted our language’s symbols into his own cryptic quasi-cypher. And now, instead of instinctually recognizing letters as language (with inherent meaning) we’re confronted with bare forms — letters stripped of their symbolism. The delicately chosen words from one of the world’s great poets has been obliterated. Only a phantom of its meaning lay on Twombly’s paper.

There is an undeniable aggression to the piece. It feels barbaric, archaic, and troublesome when confronted as our mind struggles to read the text, searching for answers. Yet, there is an ethereal beauty and peacefulness within the work. The delicate white lines of the text cut through the deep void of the page, and the compositions all feel comfortably balanced. And although Twombly’s message is simple and direct, its meaning is massively complex inviting a conversation which extends well beyond the parameters of the original piece.”