Cy Twombly's Ceiling
If in Paris this summer, do not miss Cy Twombly‘s ceiling in the Louvre (Sully Wing, 1st floor, Salle des Bronzes, Paris, France.) Twombly is the third contemporrary artist to be asked to contribute to the new Louvre — after Anselm Kiefer’s monumental painting in 2007, and François Morellet’s Lefuel Staircase window installations. For an article on how the painting was done, check the following site, detailing how Barbara Crawford, a professor of art at Southern Virginia University, assisted Twombly.
I’ve never been disappointed by a Twombly work but I suppose there’s a first time for everything. It appears that he is losing trust in his graphic abilities and getting bad advice. If he indeed didn’t want to upstage the sculptors below, he should have used only white and light grey, which would enable him to deliver a ‘classic Twombly’ which someone could walk through the room without noticing if they weren’t looking for it. He’s been able to pull off writing down the names of Classicists because his signature handwriting, which has disappeared in favor of what looks like a high school Latin classroom. I recently spent the morning at Philly’s Fifty Days of Ilium which keeps getting better and better after countless visits; the guard was talkative: ‘I’m going to bring my niece in here.’
‘Why your niece?’
‘She’s 11, she could do this.’
‘Well then she should.’
‘But what people don’t understand when they come in here is there’s a MEANING.’