Cy Twombly Fifty Days at Iliam

An exploration of Cy Twombly's Fifty Days at Iliam, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, showing how the images relate to Homer's Iliad. Scroll down for links to the individual images.
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Overview of the entire installation
www.philamuseu...
Shield of Achilles
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Heroes of the Achaeans
www.philamuseu...
Vengeance
www.philamuseu...
Achaeans in Battle
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Fire that Consumes
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Shades of Achilles, Patroclus and Hector
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House of Priam
www.philamuseu...
Ilians in Battle
www.philamuseu...
Shades of Eternal Night
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Heroes of the Ilians
www.philamuseu...

[@audreyescoll2445]

Thank you John for presenting this dramatic and enlightening video of Twombly"s expressive artistic vision.

[@madelineullom1419]

This video addresses the challenge of understanding Twombly’s abstract art by bringing meaning to the blurred and frenetic mark making. Narration and music blend to bring understanding of sequential scenes of aggression, violence, death and emptiness. A powerful interpretation!

[@missybeegood5359]

So well put! You get it👍

[@everettziegenfuss5812]

Just added so much more meaning and power to my favorite body of work at this point in my life, thank you. I wish I found this sooner.

[@bessielee9595]

thank you for the great storytelling... I saw the exhibit in Paris- so amazing...

[@bigblackbox2588]

Really refreshing to watch, helps us to realise certain motifs in Twombly’s work but ultimately gets us enthralled in the narrative of these paintings

[@jillfeldman9655]

Wow. This is so interesting. I strongly recommend it if you are interested in contemporary art.

[@patriciadanzon6775]

An enlightening and moving interpretation of Cy Twombly's art and the Trojan war. Thank you, John and team!

[@debraduckman7877]

Thank you so much..... I am going to see these on Saturday and you have given me a good background and my excitement has grown greatly to stand in front of these

[@robertdufour2456]

Thank You for this magnificent presentation! You have given me much to think about.

[@ernestolombardo5811]

"Ancient things are new things." - every piece is brand new for each set of eyeballs in front of it for the first time, no matter how ancient the piece may be. It is new over and over again, day after day after day for decades, or centuries. Or millennia. The way one responds to it is an independent, parallel matter.

[@bobweaver6609]

A fine video, John. It all comes together beautifully.

[@missybeegood5359]

Thank you John! I loved your presentation, Interpretation of the man Whose work I adore!

[@lalaoneil2813]

Thank you for making this video. I have gone to see this exhibit at least five times. I could not understand why I found it so compelling. Thank you.

[@carolhauptfuhrer2866]

Really great, John. Your film is a wonderful resource forall of us guides! Bravo!

[@gogogaga3974]

Incredible

[@darylcumming7119]

Many thanks.

[@shiva4ever]

Truly a most wonderful video. Thank you so so much, it was a very valuable learning experience 🙏

[@missybeegood5359]

Ernesto, well put! That is what makes us human. We all see things differently. I can say I am so thankful for my life gift of delving into the creations with awe of this Genius, Cy Twombly!

[@Evilsinder]

wish to have more of these kind of video , with narration and music and especially this narrator

[@shirleybrown593]

Bravo! Well done!

[@borismakesart]

Nice!!

[@merlehweismer]

Thank you for a very comprehensive description. What is next?

[@lurker4269]

Well done. It clarifies the thread connecting the images.

[@zhe6249]

This video is insanely good.

[@HoboSmutt]

❤❤❤❤

[@missybeegood5359]

Jill, so glad you get it! We see Twombly’s world 🌎!

[@s2cardinal]

Fantastic!

[@marialuizasaboiasaddi2160]

Registro das marcas dos gestos e movimentos. Interferências .Entre acaso e intenção. Prazer, experiência, descoberta e invenção. Liberdade de criação.

[@Pandoradow]

Thank you for the great narration. Personally I think the music is not necessary. it's a little distracting to the efforts getting into the details of the paintings.

[@darylcumming7119]

The attempt to question the loss of child innocence and questioning everything. That occurs on the journey to adulthood.

[@silvanacuni9661]

I had to write a comment. The reading of these canvases is brilliant. I couldn't have done better myself😅. But I just wanted to ask a question. I always keep in mind my first reading of a painting or in this case, paintings. I thought it was a study of an attack of a man out of control on a vegetable garden. And please allow me to express what I saw in these paintings. The tomatoes seemed to have got the worst blow by the angy carrots.

[@dorfmanjones]

It's Illium, not Illiam. Unless you think perhaps Byzantium was actually Byzantiam. Or Brundisium was actually Brundisiam.

[@islabutler9280]

That’s the name Cy Twomey gave it it’s not an error of the video

[@devilsososo]

It’s amazing!! Can I share it to social platforms in China with addressing the source?

[@johnimmerwahr1194]

I don’t understand your question. Maybe send me an email and explain what you need.

[@achbif]

Interesting.. actually it is difficult to understand or to connect for those who are not aware about the story. Great vedio

[@gerrylk9]

Turn down the volume and look. Then it would make sense. Oh, nevermind

[@samahdi6972]

I Enjoy Art, I Like to paint, I am in my Studio now, This Twombly is just nonsense and needs a pre existing narrative to make it seem meaningful but it is just Twullshit,

[@BrianJerome]

would love to debate some interpretations. love and agree with multiple points. your interpretations feels more of someone that went to school for art history because they couldnt actually make art, but knew what i was.

[@johnimmerwahr1194]

Right. I have no background in making art. My field is humanities.

[@Bunny-ch2ul]

Making art and art history are *very* different disciplines. Most people in art history aren't failed artists. That would be like saying everyone who likes music but doesn't pursue it professionally is a failed musician. Art history beyond the "intro to art history" that practically everyone takes is very academically rigorous. If you don't understand all the history and culture around the art, and how they relate you're going to have a very hard time. You have to have a very strong grasp of world history and culture. It's not just putting paintings into chronological order. It's also a very posh field of study. (Both Prince William and Kate Middleton have art history degrees.) If you want to work in the arts in some capacity, a lot of the most lucrative jobs more or less require art history degrees. I have friends who are museum curators, work in auction houses like Sotheby's, write for magazines, etc. who all have art history credentials. It's easily one of the most "useful" degrees in the arts. (And that's without even touching on how helpful it is as a minor, or in conjunction with other degrees.)

[@monicanudelman]

👏👏👏👏

[@rays7805]

This video took infinitely more effort to produce than Cy Twombly's aimless scribbles.

[@MrZabao]

Hi is eventually abstract or narrative … I like it but somehow not as a story

[@bobeveringham4018]

My 5 year old could also do this if I had a 5 year old.

[@mrspatmore6482]

If I hadn't had this explained to me, I never would've guessed the meaning of the work, if this is it's intended meaning? Can anyone attach their own meaning to it? I might've guessed "there's pools of blood because there's a battle of angry penises?"

[@simphiwekhumalo8828]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Moodboard39]

lol

[@Moodboard39]

i wouldnt think it has to do with myth

[@raymanlegy]

Without the explanation the paintings are shit. With the explanation the paintings are still shit. Good explanation though.

[@Drbob369]

quark gluon plasma images lol

[@satelliite]

its so weird that the person who made this video has to explain who homeros is and what he made lol

[@xryanv]

I mean he certainly has his own creative slant going on but I do see it as being a bit overrated, anyone who read the story could jot down something similar with colored pencils or crayons... sure it wouldn't be this exact take which makes it unique but I'm not seeing any particular genius or anything. He has another one that is literally just circular scribbles on a chalk board that sold for 62m $ seems a bit excessive for this level of work.

[@chezceleste]

You should ask for your money back.

[@xryanv]

@@chezceleste Who said I bought it?

[@chezceleste]

@@xryanv Thank god for that. As you say, "anyone ,,,could jot down something similar with coloured pencils or crayons"...I have yet to see anyone do a credible copy of a Cy Twombly...of course art students all over the world have been inspired by him and tried to copy, but it can't be done. Da Vinci is easy to copy, as are most figurative painters, as we see from the most expensive painting ever sold, Venus Mundi, about which the dispute rages, whether it is original or not and whether it is worth the $500,000,000 paid by MBS or the $45 for which it was sold 20 years ago. I guarantee that you could not do a copy of a Twombly. You wouldn't know where to start...and it would always be a copy...price means nothing and only one person pays for a work of art and the rest of us get it for free. Most artists die young and poor and unknown but still choose to be artists and there is so much amazing original art out there in the world that you can buy for much less...and artists don't want the world to call them geniuses, they just do what they do, pass messages from the Universe and hope to find those for whom those messages are intended. If the message is not for you, you don't need to become angry...just as everything on a menu in a restaurant may not be to your liking or as Chinese writing may be incomprehensible to you, there are others who enjoy or understand these things and the art of dead artists doesn't do you any harm and one day it may save your soul.

[@xryanv]

@@chezceleste I think you mean the Salvator Mundi? I didn't say someone could copy his work, I'm not sure why anyone would even want to. However lot's of people have scribbled on paper and made similar doodles. Or jotted down notes in a sloppy manner from a book they read. As I said there is a certain unique creativity in what he has made ( since he was a human being each of us being unique ) just the style and level of effort are similar to that of a toddler. I think since he studied child hand writing to make one of his untitled works, this was likely what he was going for.

[@chezceleste]

@@xryanv Probably...every artist is unique...and not every artist appeals to everyone...I just love some of Twombly's work...I guess because some of it looks like my own...like some things just recur all over the planet....some of it looks like cave paintings, and I love so much of what is called primitive art, from Neanderthal to Australian aboriginal to a guy who sits on the pavement and draws things in chalk which get washed away and some grafitti and well...art is everywhere...some of it speaks to us and some of it doesn't...I guess it resonates or not with our experience or our dreams and the art market and the prices paid for it mean nothing, but it does bring it to our attention and art is older and more powerful than religion or philosophy...in fact the oldest thing on the planet and you can't appreciate or understand it all, but at least it does you no harm...I think anyone who finds themselves doodling or scribbling things out of their own mind should respect themselves and call themselves artists and not be intimidated by the art market and self appointed experts saying so and so is a genius when we all have the capacity and the desire to create. Nice talking to you anway. Nice to talk about art.

[@1953streeky]

Achilles shield 😆😂😃😄😅😆

[@user-jv9qz2bu1r]

hahahahaha. - PRETENTIOUS DRIVEL

[@dasmowilkins]

art is subjective

[@OttoIncandenza]

Nah you’re just jealous some of us can feel more deeply and read books.

[@floradjan150614]

rubbish work… i saw it in royal academy gallery show, they are really big canvas, but to me such rubbish work, the mind is an interesting thing, simply madness..

[@louhawk559]

Glorifying trash on canvass.

[@missybeegood5359]

Your opinion as opposed to the many who know something you don’t ! Get it???

[@louhawk559]

@@missybeegood5359 no I haven't got it. Emphasized YET. Can u elaborate I'm open.

[@missybeegood5359]

Anyone who can’t spell, would call it trash!!!!

[@missybeegood5359]

Kurtis, if you are compassionate, loving , And mindful, you will be rewarded by a soulful gift of understanding what others Do not. You will get it!!!

[@dasmowilkins]

art is subjective

[@ilsinco]

Warning!! this is for the gullible and/or those who believe this shallow pretentious crap should be considered great art! wise up.

[@dasmowilkins]

art is subjective and not everyone is into figurative art

[@ilsinco]

@@dasmowilkins since they changed the meaning of the word 'art', then anything can be called art - that, in fact, means the word 'art' itself has become redundant. You seem to be an 'anything' lover.

[@dasmowilkins]

@@ilsinco whos they lmao art has always been subjective. beauty is in the eye of the beholder. what you're describing has always been the case because anything can be art.

[@ilsinco]

@@dasmowilkins do your homework - art was always subjective in whether you like it or not, as in, whether it's to your taste. BUT, what 'art' was, wasn't always subjective. The actual dictionary definition of art changed. Once it was 'a skill or craft (esp one involving chemicals)', then with the ideologies of Kant and Hegel this led to a different perspective on what an 'art' and an 'artist' actually should be. Modernism adopted these philosophies which has led to scribbles, blank canvases and shit in a can all being called great 'art'. People aren't to judge art themselves on merit, but are now told what art is and how good it is. Sorry if I don't allow my opinions to be spoon fed to me by 'experts'.

[@dasmowilkins]

@@ilsinco words and their definitions are also subjective. i don't care what a dictionary thinks about art. ;let me ask you a question g what do you think about trans people?

[@ApplePie..]

So over rated. The use of history to describe his art made me laugh. You could come up with any excuse to make even the worst artist look good with a so-called expert analysis. Picasso himself used to laugh at people who bought what he himself acknowledged was his atrociousy subpar work.