Cy Twombley at Tate Modern
I’ve just discovered that Cy Twombley will be at Tate Modern in London from mid-June to mid-September. I love his work. Monumental scribbles and splashes of pure color. Words that can barely be read and some that can be read quite clearly. Dribbles of paint. Thoughts and explorations. Repetition. The human hand writ large. All that freedom and carelessness. All that open space and yet within it a rather loopy daring. We saw a few of his pieces at MOMA in New York this spring and they filled me with a great sense of expansiveness and what the heck. There was nothing careful about them and I know I can get caught in that game of excessive care as an artist and a writer. I can get caught in thinking something has to conform to form—to be a careful version of what already exists. I’m really trying to break free of that in everything I do and get to that experimental place where I’m just following what comes to me.
I had that freedom once, as a kid, we all did. I had it as a very young artist, for a very short time. For all sorts of reasons I side-stepped away from the open declaration of whatever it was I cared about then. I became an observer, a studier of life, and that’s okay too. I like to think it’s all perfect and I’m thinking about it a fair amount because I will soon be sixty and that seems like so many years. Yes, it is a little odd to say it. It will take practice and I am starting here. I want to be open about who I am even if women were not appreciated for so long as they aged. I feel more creative and alive and centered now than ever. I do not think I’m too old to do the things I am doing. I still want to do things! It feels vital to me to contribute somehow to this world, especially now. And I still think, as I did in my twenties, that when I get up in the morning I get to make art and write about things that matter! I still think how I might send these things into the world as little tokens of lightness and I still send them. I think it’s all just right even though it is not quite as I thought it might be back then. Like every other artist I envisioned a rather grander kind of success than the one I achieved which has been fine and well-rounded and a little cagey. And I know, now that I’m almost sixty, just how lucky I was not to get the kind of success I envisioned back then! And when I really think about it I know I envisioned the big bucks rolling in rather later in life. Ahem. Well, never mind—now I feel rich anyway. I have so much that’s good in my life!
But I’m aware too that what I do now can never have the innocent freedom of my younger days. I feel a little nostalgia but can’t stop there. It doesn’t take us very far to dwell on or in the past. I’m just giving it a small nod as it sails by—like, it was nice knowing you, you wild, sweet, crazy girl!
Which brings me back to Cy Twombley. He’s even older than I am, for one thing, twenty years older, and he’s doing this amazing art still. Imagine. Art is fabulous like that—the gift that keeps on giving. If you give to it it gives back, over and over. We are very, very lucky those of us who have these things we love to do.
There were times when people thought Cy’s work was just scribbles, that it made no sense. He just kept doing it and, in fact, he used bigger and bigger canvases. Let’s take note of that. He was bold and brave. What an inspiration! If we’re going to try something new do it big! Make big mistakes if that’s what they’re going to be or maybe there’s no such thing as a mistake. Maybe there are just experiments. Maybe every honest gesture of our hand is worth something. I think Cy may be saying that too.
Because of this I’d really like to see this show. My mother-in-law lives in London so I go most years to visit. But now the exchange rate has become so unfavorable it seems almost prohibitive even when we have a place to stay. I will ponder a little more. There is work to be done here. Even if I don’t actually make it over I’m very excited because there will be a catalogue. I gave a Cy Twombley book I once owned to a dear artist friend some years ago and now it sells for $300. on Amazon. There’s nothing else affordable in print but soon there will be!
May 20th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Hi Cathy,
So this is interesting…I’m not familiar with this person’s work, and I like what you say about it. When I look at it I am inspired too to just let go of my own sense of needing things to look a certain way, or perfectionism, or getting caught in being too careful about what I do, correcting and so on. And I like that, it’s encouraging to see this and feel like, oh, yeah, maybe it’s a possibility to just move and see and feel and respond on the paper and not have things be so…whatever. Caged. And then there’s a part of me who is protesting, but who decided that this is Art, worthy of being in the Tate Modern? This question will drive me nutty, which either means that there’s something for me to look at or it’s just a really unhelpful question that won’t lead me anywhere useful…or maybe I ought to go and draw/paint this feeling of being driven crazy by this question…
Speaking of that question, I’m curious whether you’ve seen the movie “My Kid Could Paint That” and if so, what your thoughts were on it.
May 20th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
this was really inspirational…your thoughts about risk-taking really challenged me. i know that feeling of holding back and staying safe. suffocating after a while. thanks holding up the mirror cathy.
May 20th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Hi Julie! Really good to hear from you and thanks for your thoughtful comment. Well, one thing I LOVE about the Tate Modern is that they seem willing to explore all sorts of things when it comes to art. Who knows how people might perceive some of it in ten years or one hundred years! To me it doesn’t really matter. It’s a rather personal experience looking at art. I get a lot from the energy in it as well as the ideas.
Haven’t seen that film but last year there was a thing going around the internet about Jackson Pollock. You could try to do one of his drip painings yourself with a computer program. It wasn’t easy!! Mine came out kind of wooden or contrived looking which really showed me what phenomenal energy went into his work. Maybe that’s what we take away from it too!!
Anyway, happy painting…and scribbling!!
May 20th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Hi Terri! Such a big thing for women, I think. We’ve really been brought up to be so polite!!! Maybe the opposite of polite is free and trusting what we do without question!! Even letting ourselves mess up!
May 27th, 2008 at 6:45 am
mdf, What a pity you might not be over this summer but I do understand about the exchange rate. So many of my books are still in storage until I can find the RIGHT place to set up house. Am I the dear artist friend who you gave the Cy Twombly book to all those tears ago?? I honestly can’t remember where I got it but it is a joy to explore his genius. I was introduced to his work at an exhibition of his at the Whitechapel Gallery mabe 20 years ago. I link him in my mind with Antonio Tapies for his brilliant use of space and line. I love him and refer to him when I feel like chucking it all in. (As if I could!) I’ll probably see the exhibition next time in London but probably not until the end of summer / early Sept. I’ll send you an update.