Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock was an American Abstract Expressionist known for pouring, dripping, and flinging fluid paint across canvases laid on the floor.
Painter
Cy Twombly
Cy Twombly was an American painter known for gestural works that often combined oil-based house paint with crayon, pencil, and other drawing materials.
Cy Twombly quick facts
Twombly mixed paint with looping crayon and pencil scrawls and erasures, from early house-paint grounds to gouache and later acrylic canvases and panels.
| Full name | Edwin Parker Twombly Jr. |
|---|---|
| Born | April 25, 1928 · Lexington, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | July 5, 2011 · Rome, Italy |
| Nationality | American |
| Movements | Abstract Expressionism and the New York School |
| Paint types | Acrylic paint · Oil-based house paint · Oil paint · Gouache |
| Other media | Crayon · pencil · colored pencil · pastel · sculpture |
| Other materials | — |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas · Paper · Cardboard · Wood |
| Painting methods | Oil and house-paint grounds with gestural crayon or pencil marks; opaque gouache on paper and later acrylic on canvas or wood |
| Common subjects | Classical mythology, poetry, history, handwritten text, flowers, and gestural abstraction |
| Notable works | Academy · Untitled (1970) · Untitled (Rome, 1976) |
Sources: Museum of Modern Art, MoMA: Untitled (1954), MoMA: Untitled (1970), MoMA: Academy, MoMA annual listing: Untitled (Rome, 1976), Cy Twombly Foundation: biography, Cy Twombly Foundation: selected paintings, and Cy Twombly Foundation sculptures.
Paint types used by Cy Twombly
Twombly’s oils, house paints, gouaches, and acrylics appear alongside crayon, pencil, and ink, with medium varying across canvases and works on paper.
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Oil paint and oil-based house paint
Twombly's Leda and the Swan (1962) is oil, pencil, and crayon on canvas: loose red paint and heavily worked marks transform a mythological subject. For Academy (1955) and his enormous Untitled (1970), MoMA instead records oil-based house paint applied alongside pencil, pastel, or crayon.
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Gouache paint
MoMA holds several Untitled works from 1954 made with gouache, crayon, and colored pencil on paper. The opaque water-based passages share the sheet with restless drawing marks, showing how Twombly worked across painting and drawing well before his monumental gray-ground canvases.
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Acrylic paint
In Lepanto III (2001), acrylic joins wax crayon and graphite in a large painting about the historic naval battle. Later, Note I (2005–07) used acrylic paint on wood within an artist-made frame, as recorded by SFMOMA. These acrylic works should be distinguished from his oil-based house paint canvases.
Sources: MoMA: Leda and the Swan, oil, MoMA: Academy, oil-based house paint, MoMA: Untitled (1970), house paint and crayon, MoMA: Untitled (1954), gouache, Museum Brandhorst: Untitled (New York City), acrylic, Museum Brandhorst: Lepanto III, acrylic, and SFMOMA: Note I, acrylic on wood.
Painting surfaces used by Cy Twombly
Collection records document canvas and paper in Cy Twombly’s practice, and each row links a support to a named object and its recorded materials.
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Canvas
Twombly painted on canvas in works such as MoMA’s Academy and the oil painting Leda and the Swan. The textile support carries both his heavily worked oil compositions and canvases using oil-based house paint with drawing materials. These examples distinguish canvas from the paper and wood used in other works.
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Paper
MoMA records Twombly’s gouache works and drawings on paper, including several untitled sheets from 1954. The flexible support carries opaque paint alongside crayon and colored pencil, distinct from his large canvases. Paper is a documented part of his practice across studies and finished works.
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Cardboard
Twombly used cardboard for selected paintings, including collaged and painted compositions in MoMA’s collection. The lightweight, rigid support differs from paper sheets and stretched canvases. Collection records establish cardboard as a distinct support in his mixed-media practice, without implying that it was used for all works.
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Wood
SFMOMA records Twombly’s Note I (2005–07) as acrylic on wood within an artist-made frame. The rigid panel supports a late work distinct from the paper drawings and canvas paintings. This object record identifies wood directly, documenting its use in a specific part of his practice.
Sources: Museum of Modern Art, MoMA: Untitled (1954), MoMA: Untitled (1970), MoMA: Academy, MoMA annual listing: Untitled (Rome, 1976).
Painters similar to Cy Twombly
Painters similar to Cy Twombly use gestural abstraction, unconventional paint, drawing-like marks, layered surfaces, and process-driven postwar methods.
Molly Zuckerman-Hartung
Molly Zuckerman-Hartung is an American painter whose abstractions combine commercial paints with cut fabric, sewn supports, paper, and studio materials.