Ferragosto IV 1961

Cy Twombly made this painting, Ferragosto IV, with paint and perhaps crayon, and a whole lot of movement. It's like a dance across the surface, isn't it? Look at how the reds, browns and blues kinda burst out from a paler ground. The paint looks thin, washy in places, almost like watercolor, then thick and creamy somewhere else. It’s like he’s pushing and pulling, adding and subtracting. There's this one area down at the bottom with a couple of red marks, like cherries or maybe two little hearts, sitting under a mass of tangled dark strokes, those marks really pull the eye, they are so saturated, they feel very present, while much of the rest of the work is far more ethereal. Twombly’s work always reminds me of Joan Mitchell. Both artists build up these fields of marks that never quite settle into one thing, embracing the idea that art is never really finished, just paused for a moment.