Cy Twombly: Sign, Meta-Sign and Sense

In a 1979 article on the work of the American painter Cy Twombly, Roland Barthes writes “TW [Twombly] refers to writing (as he also often refers to culture, through words), and then he goes off somewhere else.” This article starts from the question of where or what this “somewhere else” might be, to...

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Main Author: Johanna Malt
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" 2016-12-01
Series:Sillages Critiques
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4671
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author Johanna Malt
author_facet Johanna Malt
author_sort Johanna Malt
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description In a 1979 article on the work of the American painter Cy Twombly, Roland Barthes writes “TW [Twombly] refers to writing (as he also often refers to culture, through words), and then he goes off somewhere else.” This article starts from the question of where or what this “somewhere else” might be, towards which Cy Twombly heads on leaving behind cultural and linguistic meaning. I propose that it is towards something logically prior to, on in a sense “behind” signification that Cy Twombly directs his attention, and that phenomenology offers us a way of approaching this ground. Via an analysis of the effect of layering in several paintings from the early 1960s, I argue that, in this layering, signification via the presence of text becomes just another category of object to be called forth, or rather, another mode of relation to the world which the painting investigates in its meta-reflection on relationality as meaning.
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spelling doaj.art-4fc9ef6a4b7b4a55bb9c2538e10fcc862022-12-21T18:11:17ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022016-12-0121Cy Twombly: Sign, Meta-Sign and SenseJohanna MaltIn a 1979 article on the work of the American painter Cy Twombly, Roland Barthes writes “TW [Twombly] refers to writing (as he also often refers to culture, through words), and then he goes off somewhere else.” This article starts from the question of where or what this “somewhere else” might be, towards which Cy Twombly heads on leaving behind cultural and linguistic meaning. I propose that it is towards something logically prior to, on in a sense “behind” signification that Cy Twombly directs his attention, and that phenomenology offers us a way of approaching this ground. Via an analysis of the effect of layering in several paintings from the early 1960s, I argue that, in this layering, signification via the presence of text becomes just another category of object to be called forth, or rather, another mode of relation to the world which the painting investigates in its meta-reflection on relationality as meaning.http://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4671abstract expressionismartMaurice Merleau-PontyJean-Luc Nancypaintingphenomenology
spellingShingle Johanna Malt
Cy Twombly: Sign, Meta-Sign and Sense
Sillages Critiques
abstract expressionism
art
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Jean-Luc Nancy
painting
phenomenology
title Cy Twombly: Sign, Meta-Sign and Sense
title_full Cy Twombly: Sign, Meta-Sign and Sense
title_fullStr Cy Twombly: Sign, Meta-Sign and Sense
title_full_unstemmed Cy Twombly: Sign, Meta-Sign and Sense
title_short Cy Twombly: Sign, Meta-Sign and Sense
title_sort cy twombly sign meta sign and sense
topic abstract expressionism
art
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Jean-Luc Nancy
painting
phenomenology
url http://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/4671
work_keys_str_mv AT johannamalt cytwomblysignmetasignandsense