“It’s more like I’m having an experience than making a picture.” -Cy Twombly
From the New York Times obituary upon the death of Cy Twombly, July 5, 2011:
“In the only written statement that Mr. Twombly ever made about his work, a short essay in an Italian art journal in 1957, he tried to make clear that his intentions were not subversive but elementally human.
Each line he made, he said, was “the actual experience” of making the line, adding: “It does not illustrate. It is the sensation of its own realization.” Years later he described this more plainly. “It’s more like I’m having an experience than making a picture.”
The process stood in stark contrast to the detached, effete image that often clung to Mr. Twombly. After completing a work, in a kind of ecstatic state, it was as if the painting existed and he barely did anymore: “I usually have to go to bed for a couple of days.”
Amen. Exactly.
RIP, Cy. I’ll miss you.
(Italics mine)
The Inner Path of Photography 