Cy Twombly's Green Paintings series, created around 1986, represents a fascinating period in the artist's extensive career, marked by a profound engagement with nature, abstraction, and the materiality of painting. These works, characterized by their evocative use of green paint applied on plywood panels, invite viewers into a contemplative space that merges the boundary between image and frame. The series suggests naturalistic themes, possibly inspired by the lush landscapes surrounding Twombly's studio in Gaeta, Italy, or the serene whiteness of the Mediterranean Sea visible from his workspace. This merging of image and frame in the Green Paintings illustrates Twombly's enduring interest in exploring the canvas's physical and conceptual edges during the 1980s (The Metropolitan Museum of Art).
The Green Paintings were not cataloged in Twombly's lifetime nor exhibited, remaining with the artist until his death in 2011. Their exclusion from the catalogue raisonné and the lack of exhibition history during Twombly's life add a layer of mystery to these works, raising questions about whether Twombly considered them complete. This ambiguity lends the series a sense of intimacy and unfinished exploration, reflecting a moment of artistic process frozen in time, possibly reflective of Twombly's own contemplations on nature, the act of painting, and the ephemeral nature of artistic creation (The Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Twombly's artistic journey was marked by a transition from minimalist and abstract expressions, evident in his earlier blackboard paintings, towards a more colorful and bold exploration of historic themes and nature in his later work. This progression underscores a broader exploration of color, where Twombly moved from the monochromatic gestures of the 1950s and 60s to the vibrant hues of his later years. The Green Paintings sit within this trajectory, embodying both the physical gesture of painting and the symbolic gesture towards the natural world (www.wikiart.org).
His oeuvre is a complex interweaving of classical references, poetic text, and abstract expression, deeply influenced by his move to Italy and his engagement with the Mediterranean landscape and classical history. Twombly's work remains an influential force in contemporary art, bridging the gap between abstract expressionism and the emerging neo-expressionist movements, and continues to inspire artists and audiences with its lyrical, enigmatic qualities (Wikipedia).