Earlier in the week I went to see the new Cy Twombly exhibtion at Tate Modern. They have been promoting him as one of the most significant contemporary artitsts so I was looking forward to the visit.
I thought the show got off to a fairly slow start. His early work didn't really do a great deal for me, especially the cold, minimalistic scrawling pieces. Twombly is generally categorized as post-abstract and a lot of his earlier work would confuse the casual observer.
However, as I progressed through the show I began to enjoy his paintings more. The introduction of colour seemed to bring the exhibition to life and the themes of nature, water and seasons, although never obvious, broke through the fog of earlier abstractism.
His brand of minimalism seemed to revert to a more conventional form as the exhibition progressed. The highlight for me was 'Untitled (A Painting In Nine Parts)' which provided a much needed glimpse of aesthetic beauty. This was something I could not locate in his earlier work.
So, my thoughts on leaving were that the second half of the show generally made up for the earlier disappointments.
On a separate issue the soundtrack to my visit was 'Hawaii' by The High Llamas. Has there ever been a more consistently brilliant album over 29 tracks I thought to myself as I walked back to Bank tube station??
More on the High Llamas in my next post.....
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