Nine Discourses on Commodus, Part II 1963

Editor: This is Cy Twombly’s "Nine Discourses on Commodus, Part II" from 1963. It’s a painting, with lots of visible gestural ink work. I’m really drawn to the starkness, the contrast between the violence of the red marks and the relative emptiness surrounding it. What formal qualities stand out to you? Curator: The application of line, certainly. Note the aggressive, almost violent quality of the red scrawls against the muted background. The linear elements create a field of tension. Consider how the composition is weighted, with the cluster of marks floating almost centrally, yet tethered by drips. This organization allows a reading that emphasizes not only materiality and movement but also a delicate equipoise. Editor: Equipoise… you mean a sense of balance? The asymmetry almost feels disruptive to me. Curator: Precisely! But look again – isn’t it the very imbalance that generates a dynamic equilibrium? The way Twombly uses the raw canvas also highlights the artwork as an object rather than an illusion. What does that incompleteness do to your interpretation? Editor: I guess that the piece emphasizes form itself, its materiality…rather than suggesting something beyond the work itself. Curator: Exactly. Now consider the relationship between line, color, and ground. Does the painting open any new questions for you concerning process and abstraction? Editor: Yes, absolutely. It challenges my expectations. I tend to want to know what a piece is 'about,' but here the 'aboutness' seems to reside in the artistic process. Curator: An apt conclusion. Twombly encourages us to value the visible act of creation, emphasizing form and surface as content themselves.