This piece of work was created by the American artist, Cy Twombly. He was born in Virginia, United States on April 25, 1928. Twombly was a painter of large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic and graffiti-like works. At age 12, Twombly began to take private art lessons with the Spanish modern master Pierre Daura. After graduating from Lexington High School in 1946, Twombly attended Darlington School in Rome, Georgia, and studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1948–49), and at Washington and Lee University (1949–50) in Lexington, Virginia. Twombly studied at the Art Students League of New York, where he met Robert Rauschenberg, who encouraged him to attend Black Mountain College near Asheville where he studied with artists such as Franz Kline and Ben Shahn. When Twombly moved to Rome in 1957, he met Italian artist Baroness Tatiana Franchetti. whom he married at City Hall in New York in 1959. Twombly, who had suffered from cancer for many years, unfortunately died in Rome in 2011 on the 5th July. Twombly soon developed a technique of gestural drawing that was characterized by thin white lines on a dark canvas that appear to be scratched onto the surface. Erotic and corporeal symbols became more prominent, whilst a greater lyricism developed in his 'Blackboard paintings'. In the mid-1970s, in paintings such as Untitled (1976), Twombly began to evoke landscape through colour (favouring brown, green and light blue), written inscriptions and collage elements. Together with Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, Twombly is regarded as the most important representative of a generation of artists who distanced themselves from abstract expressionism.
Twombly was well known for using oil paint and using a combination of oil and collage to build up layers in his pieces. The piece of work that I am going to analyse is Victory, created in 1984, made from oil stick, oil paint, pencil and collage. When looking at this piece, you immediately notice the feature shape in the centre, which is made up of a piece of paper that has been folded in an imprecise manner. The end result of this way of folding the paper, produces two triangle shapes which are adjacent to each other. There are marks that have been made on the paper, which looks like pencil and ink. The paper looks old, and this could refer to an old document. This then allowed the piece to relate to my theme of divorce and marriage as I thought the 'document style' piece of paper could represent an old divorce paper. Next you may notice the tonal background, which is an off-white. This is commonly used in Twombly's pieces so it's no surprise that this colour background is featured in this piece. This piece also features pastel blue lettering, which is also something regularly seen in his work. The lettering, which looks as if it has been done with Twombly's irregular writing hand, makes up the name of the piece. This has also been done in many of Twombly's pieces such as, Proteus (1984) and Apollo (1975). Featured in this piece is also small pencil marks located at the top and bottom of the piece. The marks look like they could resemble small letters however, without seeing the piece up close, it is difficult to tell.
I am unsure about the form of this piece of work because I haven't seen it up close, therefore I cannot tell whether it is 2D or 3D. There is no shadow on the lower triangle, which does lead me to think that the piece is 2D, however I cannot be sure. The piece measures up to roughly 168 x 119cm, so the size of the folded paper must have been quite big, as it takes up the majority of the piece. There are no real obvious tonal differences in this piece, as all the colours which have been used are either pastel or tonal.
The immediate component of the piece which you are drawn to look at first is the folded centre piece, this then leads you to look at the lettering as it is the next object in order in terms of size. The viewers eyes are then leaded to the rest of the piece, e.g. the small pencil marks.
The term victory, means a success or a win at something against an opponent. In November 1984, in the USA, there was the 50th quadrennial presidential election between President Ronald Reagan, who was victorious, and Vice President Walter Mondale. Reagan's 525 electoral votes (out of 538) is the highest total ever received by a presidential candidate, which is considered a huge accomplishment. If Victory was created after this election, this may be the answer as to why the piece was created. The large piece of folded paper in the centre of the piece may resemble a voting form, which was used to vote for Ronald Reagan. As Twombly was American, this could be the reason behind this piece, despite him living with his wife in Rome at the time.
Another victory which almost took place in 1984 was in May and this was at the European World Cup match between England and Italy. As Twombly lived in Italy, he may have supported Italy during this time. This piece may have been produced before the match, with Twombly expecting a win. Unfortunately, Italy lost to 4-3 to penalties, after drawing 1-1 in the match.
I find all of Twombly's work very interesting to look at and to attempt to work in the style of an this piece was not exception. I attempted to put in my theme and change the word Victory to Divorce and make the folded piece of paper look like an old divorce paper.
Twombly was well known for using oil paint and using a combination of oil and collage to build up layers in his pieces. The piece of work that I am going to analyse is Victory, created in 1984, made from oil stick, oil paint, pencil and collage. When looking at this piece, you immediately notice the feature shape in the centre, which is made up of a piece of paper that has been folded in an imprecise manner. The end result of this way of folding the paper, produces two triangle shapes which are adjacent to each other. There are marks that have been made on the paper, which looks like pencil and ink. The paper looks old, and this could refer to an old document. This then allowed the piece to relate to my theme of divorce and marriage as I thought the 'document style' piece of paper could represent an old divorce paper. Next you may notice the tonal background, which is an off-white. This is commonly used in Twombly's pieces so it's no surprise that this colour background is featured in this piece. This piece also features pastel blue lettering, which is also something regularly seen in his work. The lettering, which looks as if it has been done with Twombly's irregular writing hand, makes up the name of the piece. This has also been done in many of Twombly's pieces such as, Proteus (1984) and Apollo (1975). Featured in this piece is also small pencil marks located at the top and bottom of the piece. The marks look like they could resemble small letters however, without seeing the piece up close, it is difficult to tell.
I am unsure about the form of this piece of work because I haven't seen it up close, therefore I cannot tell whether it is 2D or 3D. There is no shadow on the lower triangle, which does lead me to think that the piece is 2D, however I cannot be sure. The piece measures up to roughly 168 x 119cm, so the size of the folded paper must have been quite big, as it takes up the majority of the piece. There are no real obvious tonal differences in this piece, as all the colours which have been used are either pastel or tonal.
The immediate component of the piece which you are drawn to look at first is the folded centre piece, this then leads you to look at the lettering as it is the next object in order in terms of size. The viewers eyes are then leaded to the rest of the piece, e.g. the small pencil marks.
The term victory, means a success or a win at something against an opponent. In November 1984, in the USA, there was the 50th quadrennial presidential election between President Ronald Reagan, who was victorious, and Vice President Walter Mondale. Reagan's 525 electoral votes (out of 538) is the highest total ever received by a presidential candidate, which is considered a huge accomplishment. If Victory was created after this election, this may be the answer as to why the piece was created. The large piece of folded paper in the centre of the piece may resemble a voting form, which was used to vote for Ronald Reagan. As Twombly was American, this could be the reason behind this piece, despite him living with his wife in Rome at the time.
Another victory which almost took place in 1984 was in May and this was at the European World Cup match between England and Italy. As Twombly lived in Italy, he may have supported Italy during this time. This piece may have been produced before the match, with Twombly expecting a win. Unfortunately, Italy lost to 4-3 to penalties, after drawing 1-1 in the match.
I find all of Twombly's work very interesting to look at and to attempt to work in the style of an this piece was not exception. I attempted to put in my theme and change the word Victory to Divorce and make the folded piece of paper look like an old divorce paper.
