Tacita Dean - Why Cy?, 2010

Tacita Dean made, Why Cy? Is the result of a night she spent alone with Twombly’s works at the Menil Collection in Houston last year and coincided with her show there, Tacita Dean: Blind Folly . It is a personal reflection on her reaction and admiration to the works by the artist on whom she also wrote her MFA thesis. It has been described as a ‘love letter of sorts’, rather than a critique or review. It shows her admiration for the artist in a way of aesthetic connection and emotional response.

“copying his words, his handwriting, was may way of trying to get closer to him that night.” Mirroring how Twombly wrote in darkness during WWll, capturing through motion. Tracing his handwriting reconnect with both his process and presence. Responding emotionally and sensorily. theartnewspaper.com

TAKE AWAYS: The obvious presence of the artist’s hand through script and handwriting and yet with mostly unintelligible script. Doesn’t matter that not readable as it adds to the presence of the mark without the distraction of meaning through text. I like the retracing idea, like in the footsteps of an artist you admire, or a child copying. Going back over to go forward, learning. Also how Dean tries to produce an entirely sensory response by spending the night alone with the works of art, without interruption presumably, without light. I remember how Tracy Emin liked to lock herself in a studio, naked with a bottle of wine to focus on her painting. ‘Turning her back to the World’ like Agnes Martin. To dampen down the other senses to concentrate on pure emotional reaction and communication. The primal response, the rawness. I like the importance this gives each mark, the presence, the solitude of the mark (the background being non-descriptive). In my work, I enjoy the mark that is made from the rear face of the canvas that pushes the dye colour through to the other side. I like the idea of the formal pattern or design on the back face and the impression showing through. It creates a different less intentional mark that is secondary, but carries with it the feeling of being unintentional, the response to the action.

Details from my work (above)