Untitled 2008

Editor: We're looking at Cy Twombly's "Untitled" from 2008, an acrylic on canvas. The blue is so intense, and the looping white lines almost seem to dance across the surface. What can you tell me about it? Curator: Consider how the paint itself dictates the form. The saturated blue background acts as a ground against which we witness the application of white paint. It’s dripped, flung, almost carelessly applied. Notice how the gestural marks become the primary subject. Editor: It almost feels impulsive, like a quick sketch blown up to a massive scale. Curator: Exactly. Think about the artist's studio as a site of labor, the canvas as a terrain for experimentation. Twombly isn't necessarily interested in creating a window onto another world, but in foregrounding the very act of making art. What social factors were present during this time period? Editor: Well, 2008 was right at the start of the big financial crisis. Was Twombly maybe responding to… something? Curator: Perhaps. Consumption patterns, wealth inequality, all of this affects the artist as a member of the working world. Editor: It makes you wonder about his relationship to the materials themselves. Was it about the scarcity, or maybe even the excess, that the period was known for? Curator: Precisely! We can look beyond personal expression and see how Twombly engaged with the material conditions of his time. Editor: I never thought of abstract expressionism that way. This gives me so much more to consider when I see a work like this. Curator: The making reveals more than any assumed hidden meaning. Keep watching for that!