Hero and Leander (To Christopher Marlowe) [Rome] 1985

Cy Twombly made this painting, Hero and Leander, in Rome, and its all about how color can create form, even out of thin washes of paint. Up close, you can see how the colors are layered, almost like watercolor but on a huge scale. There's this dance between the reds and whites, and how the drips create a sense of movement, like the story of Hero and Leander itself, a tale of love, loss, and the sea. That lower left corner, with its messy, almost floral burst of reds, feels like both a wound and a passionate embrace. It's raw and exposed. The painting reminds me of Joan Mitchell's abstract landscapes, but where Mitchell is bold and assertive, Twombly is poetic and ethereal. It's like he's whispering secrets with his brush, inviting us to find our own stories within the layers of paint.