Twombly and Poussin: Arcadian Painters
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, until September 25th.
It has become a trend for big exhibitions to feature more than one artist, so they sound like arty advertising agencies—”Matisse Picasso”, “Turner Whistler Monet”, “Duchamp Man Ray Picabia”. Mostly the artists shared techniques or palettes, schools or circles. Not so the latest combo: Twombly and Poussin.
One is an American abstract expressionist, the other a classical French painter, and three centuries separate them. The paintings of Nicolas Poussin are luxuriously detailed, with a rich Titian-like intimacy (above: Rinaldo and Armida, c.1630). Cy Twombly, who died on July 5th, aged 83, painted work that is bold, energetic and challenging. So why put them together?
Well, both moved to Rome at 30 or so, and spent most of their lives there. And Twombly did once say, I would have liked to have been Poussin. If the curators are placing a lot of weight on that line, these two giants do have some things in common. Both are gripped by classical myth, Renaissance painting and Arcadia; both have painted the four seasons. Poussins work is allegorical, full of intellectual rigour, while Twomblys is textual, a kind of écriture.
This exhibition, one of a series marking Dulwich’s bicentenary, manages to find six mutual themes. Whether it answers the niggling doubts will be fascinating to see.
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