In this discussion recording as part of the Making Space for Art series, Dr Frances Guerin (Film Studies, University of Kent) is in conversation with Professor Ahuvia Kahane (RHUL) on the subject Grey/Polychrome: Cy Twombly, Modernity, Classicism, and the History of Art.

Today more than ever, Cy Twombly’s paintings are both modernist and attached to the past and, particularly, to Antiquity. Much of Twombly’s work is characteristically grey (or white), cerebral and replete with absence. And yet other work makes use of bold primary colours, violent brushwork and rapid movement. This discussion between Frances Guerin and Ahuvia Kahane will explore the myriad tensions and provocations of Twombly’s paintings. From opposite, but not incompatible, approaches, the film scholar and the classicist will offer new perspective on a body of work that effortlessly embraces opposites that are nevertheless always impossible to articulate fully.

Chaired by Professor James Williams (Centre for Visual Cultures, Royal Holloway).

This discussion took place on 23 May 2018. 

Please click on the video to listen to the talk. 

You can view a transcript here. 

These talks were recorded for Royal Holloway by Backdoor Broadcasting. (Image used for video by Jonathan Farber.)