Returning from Tonnicoda 1973

Cy Twombly made this drawing called 'Returning from Tonnicoda' with crayon on paper, and you know, it's all about the gesture. The marks are layered, almost chaotic, but there's a real energy there. You can feel the movement in his hand, the way he looped and swirled that crayon. It’s like he’s trying to capture the feeling of a place rather than a literal depiction. I am really drawn to the physicality of the drawing. It looks like the green crayon was held loosely to create this textured surface, with some areas more intensely worked than others. In the lower left corner, you can almost see how the crayon crumbled and built up, so the surface becomes almost sculptural. Twombly always reminds me a little of Joan Mitchell in the way he channels the immediacy of experience through abstraction. With both artists there's this sense of endless possibility and openness.