De Kooning's "Dark Pond"

I think the De Kooning was my favorite art exhibit we saw all semester. Actually, I don’t just think – I know it was. I mean, Matisse and Hals aren’t quite my cup of tea and as much as I appreciated the works we’ve viewed hitherto, I never quite enjoyed them. They hit me on a purely objective level (more logos than pathos), and I didn’t really feel that any exhibit provided an immersive experience.  All that changed with De Kooning at the MoMa. Don’t get me wrong – I’m still not quite what you would call an abstract art aficionado, but I found his overall style and color palate a lot more appealing than say, Gauguin’s (I know I’m sort of comparing apples and oranges, but my first criteria for whether or not I like a work of art is the color range. Gauguin’s vibrancy is not so much my style, whereas De Kooning’s colors, although saturated at times, were much more muted and thus, more appealing to me). A lot of his work was extremely thought-provoking and even poignant at times, at least from my perspective.

Twombly's "Untitled, 1953"

The pieces I found most intriguing were the black and white paintings. The moment I spotted them, I turned to Ayala and said “these remind me of Cy Twombly and his chalkboards.” She responded “yeah, they do look a little like chalkboards.” Now, Cy Twombly, if you must know, is not really my favorite artist by any means (click on his name to view some of his works). I guess it’s strange of me, but there is one piece of his that I do happen to find appealing. It’s called “Cold Stream” and it’s basically a row of white spiral scribbles on a black board. Call me crazy, but I actually think this piece is incredible (both conceptually and aesthetically). In any case, I have been known to make arbitrary associations between things, and so I wondered whether De Kooning and Twombly were an exception. Was there something behind my alleged connection between these two artists?

After a quick Google search, I was brought to a website called The Art Story: Your Guide to Modern Art. I quickly scrolled down the page as I skimmed the site’s history of Twombly, and then I came across this line: “Twombly’s work at this time (1952) was largely in black and white, influenced both by Robert Rauschenberg’s paintings and the monochromatic work of Willem De Kooning, Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell.” Eureka.

For those who wish to see some more Twombly  “Cy Twombly: Sculpture” is on exhibit at the MoMa until January 2.