November 2008
Cy Twombly (American, 1928-2011)
Cold Stream
1966
White wax pencil on canvas
This painting reminds me of the drawings of Rudolf Steiner (see the exhibition Joseph Beuys & Rudolf Steiner: Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition at The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne earlier this year) but here the performance of marking is pushed beyond the bounds of the spiritual by the ferocious attack of the artist – repeating the form but transgressing the boundaries of that form, disintegrating the ritual into the physical release of energy through the hand.
One can almost see the maelstrom of the splitting of the atom in Twombly’s repeating performance threatening to destroy himself and the world around him.
Dr Marcus Bunyan
Rudolf Steiner. Blackboard Drawings, 1919-1924
Art Blart _ art and cultural memory archive 
These curly scribbles by Twombly seem to have less to say than some of his other work, which seems less deliberate and space-filling. But I still like it : )