Modern vs. ancient

Twombly was inspired by Greek culture, creating a modern vision of the ancient world and reworking it into a new form of visual expression.

The ideal screen

At the start of the 1960s, Twombly began using increasingly large canvases, almost as big as cinema screens, which were "the ideal shields" for hurling splashes, marks, threads, and lumps onto the white background.

Abstract expressionism

The artist translates the very action of abstract American expressionism into this work, both syllabically and ideographically.