My Favorite Painting

My favorite painting is Lepanto, 2001 (panel 7 of 12) by Cy Twombly. I discovered this painting the summer before my first year of college. My two girlfriends and I rode the train from Milwaukee to Chicago to tour the art museum. At the very end of our tour, we came to the modern art wing. I'm not sure if the selection of Cy's works I saw were part of a traveling exhibit, but he had 3 large galleries dedicated to his more recent work. I was really captivated by his style and use of color.
When I got home, I did some more research on him and found this painting. I love this painting because of it's use of color and dream-like feel. My interpretation of this painting is that it's Cy's representation of the sky on a clear day. His free form shapes seem to resemble the same similar shapes of clouds. I also like that this painting leaves room for possible narratives. I think that Cy's use of both bold and subdued color makes this painting very appealing to the eye and the dripping makes the piece have a more whimsical feel.
When analyzing this piece, my eye is first drawn to its color. Because Cy uses both bold and more subdued colors, my eye is fist attracted to the brightest bold color which is the yellow on the top, middle of the painting. Because Cy Twombly is an abstract artist, his paintings don't have significant depth or compositional lines. Cy creates movement and a slight illusion of depth by using bold colors on top of pastel colors. He balanced the bold warm colors with the bold cool colors by moving the colors throughout the page. The red hot dog looking shapes create a diagonal in the lower half of the painting. This movement is balanced, however, by the bold yellow and dark purples on the top and sides of this painting. Cy also created direction by using a drip technique. His use of shape is very free form and the drips from these shapes draw the eye toward the bottom of the page. This directional movement is once again balanced by the bold color used at the top of the painting.
Cy Twombly's choice of color and movement create a well balanced composition that is very unique, yet captivating.