Ides of March 1962

This is Cy Twombly's Ides of March, it's all furious scribbles and chaotic marks, an anxious, all-over surface of layered gesture. It looks like Twombly may have attacked the canvas with charcoal and maybe some dry pigment and wax crayon too, building up this scratchy surface. You can imagine him in the studio, grappling with history, time, violence, all the stuff that makes us human. I feel like the painting itself is an event, a kind of happening, almost like a diagram of an epic poem, a collision between writing and drawing. That nervous energy, those erasures and starts all remind me of his other work but here he's got some very specific event in mind. Painting is such a great way to work through ideas without having to be all pinned down and logical. Twombly has always been in conversation with other artists, so don't forget to have a conversation with him too!