While studying abroad in Paris, France with other Marywood art students over spring break, I had the opportunity to see many eras of art history through painting, sculpture, and architecture. Everything we have been learning about in art history for the past three years was right in front of me. This year, however, I am studying contemporary art history so I had my heart set on seeing the Cy Twombly Exhibition at the Centre Pompidou.

Cy Twombly (1928- 2011) was an American painter who’s notable career began in the 1950s and is now considered as one of the most important abstract expressionist painters from the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st century. This retrospective retraces a sixty-year career of paintings and sculptures coming out of his responses to writings, history, minimalism, and conceptualism.

I admired the raw beauty of these paintings without even knowing the exact story behind them. I was interested in the way the were made, the physicality of the paint and the intense feelings that emerge from looking at these paintings. It is so interesting to me to be able to imagine the hand that made these and the movement of the body that creates such large images. I am happy that I went to this exhibition free of knowing to much and without any expectations. I was able to experience these works with only knowing what was right in front of me.

Some of the paintings were behind glass so my photos of them are not as clear as the ones below. I wish I could post them all.