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Architectural Forms
In addition to architectural references, Twombly's works often feature geometric forms, numbers, graphs, and arcs, alluding to systems of measure but remaining enigmatic. Untitled of 1981 (above) is such a work. The object deploys a fanlike format of wooden laths in a sequence that suggests the continuation of movement over time. The effect relates closely to late nineteenth-century chronophotography, the photographic record of figures in motion that so influenced artists of the early twentieth century. |
Twombly, who married an Italian in 1959, has lived in Italy since 1957.
His interest in landscape and architecture has been enhanced by the
Italian homes he has refurbished and lives in: an apartment in Rome,
a Renaissance palazzo north of Rome in Bassano in Teverina, and a house
in Gaeta with a lemon grove and a studio view of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
The importance of place to Twombly is emphasized by the titles of his
works, which invariably include the location of their making: while
many sites are Italian, others reflect the artist's extensive travels.
Twombly refers to white paint as his "marble"--in relation to the sculpture
and architecture of Italy--but there is an inescapable American quality
to his whitewashing. It is not merely his use of white paint over wood,
the "classical" American building material, but its seeming erosion,
which poignantly recalls the decaying antebellum grandeur of the architecture
of the American South.