Cy Twombly's series "Leaving Paphos Ringed with Waves" (2009) is a captivating exploration of themes central to Twombly's work: passage, exile, and the intersection of the mythical with the deeply personal. Comprising four large canvases, the series was inspired by a line from Alkman, a 7th-century BCE Greek lyrical poet. This reference underscores Twombly's enduring fascination with ancient civilizations and their literary and artistic expressions (Gagosian).
The works are marked by their vibrant use of color—fiery orange-reds and deep yellows set against expanses of vivid turquoise, evoking the sea that surrounds Paphos, a city sacred to Aphrodite. The boat motif, a recurring symbol in Twombly's oeuvre, serves as a metaphor for various dualities: life and death, journeying and return, and historical cycles of rise and decline. These paintings, displayed in Gagosian's Athens venue, draw from Twombly's Mediterranean surroundings, specifically his home in Gaeta, Italy, and are infused with a sense of the sea's omnipresence and its significance in both historical and personal contexts (Gagosian).
The series also embodies Twombly's characteristic blend of painting and writing, where textual elements intertwine with visual motifs to create a rich, layered tapestry of references and meanings. The presence of text—here, an evocative line from Alkman—alongside the vividly painted boats, adds depth to the works, situating them within a broader narrative framework that bridges the ancient and the contemporary. Twombly's method, involving a direct and spontaneous application of paint, lends these works a dynamic and expressive quality that is both personal and universal (The Arts Fuse).
"Leaving Paphos Ringed with Waves" represents a profound meditation on history, memory, and the fluidity of time, where the past is not a distant realm but a living, breathing presence that continually intersects with the present. Through this series, Twombly invites viewers to contemplate the cyclical nature of history and the human experience, and the ways in which art can serve as a conduit between temporal worlds (The Arts Fuse).