Ferragosto III 1961

Cy Twombly made Ferragosto III with paint and maybe a few other things on canvas. Look at the surface, the way the paint is applied in such a physical way – it's like he's wrestling with the material. You can almost feel his energy and movement as he worked. There's so much texture, from the thin washes to the thick, almost sculptural daubs of paint. The colors are mostly muted, but then you get these pops of red that just grab your attention. Take, for example, those long streaks of red, dripping downwards. Are they violent or sensual? I can't decide, and I like that I can't decide. Twombly reminds me a bit of Joan Mitchell, in the way that both artists use abstraction to convey emotion. But where Mitchell is all about the big, sweeping gestures, Twombly feels more intimate, more personal. His work is not about answers but about asking questions, and I love him for that.