This is the canvas I am working on in my studio. Inspired by Basquiat and Twombly, I have used oil stick, spraypaint, pastel, emulsion and pencil. I may use varnish on some areas and add another layer.
Anton Ehrenzweig believes that a good artist must have an ‘undifferentiated’ attention holding the total structure of the work in an ‘undifferentiated’ view. He states that a dispersed empty stare is needed so that unconscious scanning can go on. The artist is looking to find details which upset the balance of the picture, which can then be altered. Ehrenzweig suggests that this ‘undifferentiated’ attention must be guided by some hidden order working on primitive levels of awareness. (Erenzweig 1967:29)
Ehrenzweig, A. (1967) The Hidden Order of Art: A Study in the Psychology of Artistic Imaginatic. London: Weidenfeld.
Jean-Michel Basquiat was heavily influenced by Cy Twombly. Richard Marshall states that, Twombly was one of the few artists that Basquiat cited as an influence and “his impact is apparent in his numerous loose, scratchy and scribbled works” (Marshall 1996:35).
Marshall, R, D. (1996) ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat and His Subjects’ In Navara, E (ed) Jean-Michel Basquiat. Paris: Galerie Enrico Navara.
Basquiat has appropriated the imagery of arrows and grid formations from cave art. Lucy Lippard refers to them as calendar grids and they may have been used for marking the passing of time.
Lippard, L, R. (1983) Overlay: Contemporary Art and the Art of Prehistory. New York: The New Press.
Marshall suggests that Basquiat had a fascination with rock art and directly borrowed images from African cave drawings.
Bernard Blistene states that Basquiat sought to go back to the origins. He suggests that his work could be “regarded as the modern equivalent of this form of cave art”. He suggests that he uses an “instinctive sense that guided the hand of the first men” (Blistene, 1997:9).
Blistene, B. (1997) Jean-Michel Basquiat: Works on Paper. Paris: Foundation Dina Vierny Musee.
Marshall suggests that Basquiat began as a graffiti artist and was attracted to rock art as it is an early form of graffiti. Both Twombly and Basquiat use writing as a visual language. This is in the same vein as ancient writing such as Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Oriental calligraphy and ideograms from other ancient cultures.
In 1924 Andre Breton began automatic writing and in 1961 Maurice Merleau Ponty wrote the surrealist manifesto highlighting the act of drawing and writing as a liberating graphic mark making which was considered to put the artist in touch with his unconscious.
I am very inspired by Cy Twombly who was influenced by Breton and Merleau Ponty.
Nicola Del Roscio argues that Twombly creates a direct link between his hand and his nervous system. She states that it should not only be compared to the automatic drawing of the surrealists but also to the poetic theory of ‘projective verse’ defined by Charles Olson, whereby the heart is connected to the line by the breath.
Del Roscio, N (2002) Writings on Cy Twombly. Munich: Schirmer-Mosel.
Harold Szeeman suggests that Twombly’s markings are “eruptions of raw psychic energy” (Szeeman 1987:9).
Szeemann, H. (ed) (1987) Cy Twombly: Paintings, Works on Paper, Sculpture. Munich: Prestel-Verlag.
In observing the works of Cy Twombly it is therefore important to refer to psychoanalysis.
Newton suggests that psychoanalysis sees the primitive and archaic level of the psyche as always latent, waiting to manifest itself, this requires at least the temporary overthrow of the rational grip of consciousness. He states that the very act of creativity itself involves the primitivist impulse, the desire to integrate the raw unacknowledged contents of the artists psyche.
Newton, S, J. (1996) The Politics and Psychoanalysis of Primitivism. London: Ziggurat Books.
