There’s no question that Twombly is today a giant in the art world – but it took a long time for him to get there. This show is the best chance you may ever have to judge and understand this artist. For Twombly – a prime contender for the sneer, ‘My children could do better’ – is undoubtedly difficult. Obsessed with marks, the ordered chaos of these graffiti-like scrawls are, despite their classical references, hardly sentimental, European works. Yet that was a charge levelled by a chauvinistic New York art establishment obsessed with Minimalism and Pop Art. The Nine Discourses are one of three cycles the Centre Pompidou is showing amongst other items drawn from collections all over the globe. The two other cycles: Fifty Days at Iliam (1978) based on Homer’s descriptions of the last 50 days of the Trojan War and Coronation of Sesostris, both reference the ancient world that fascinated Twombly and which he re-interpreted in his unique and unmistakable style.
Cy Twombly, Blooming,
2001-8, acrylic and wax crayon on wooden panels. Private Collection.
Until April 24th at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
