Twombly and Poussin - Arcadian Painters at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Twombly and Poussin - Arcadian Painters at Dulwich Picture Gallery

29 June, 2011
by: Tom Jeffreys

As Dulwich Picture Gallery celebrates its bicentenary, Tom Jeffreys is impressed by curation that is both strong and subtle.

To celebrate their bicentenary, Dulwich Picture Gallery have put on one of the boldest exhibitions of the year so far. Arcadian Painters positions seventeenth century French formalist Nicolas Poussin alongside twentieth century scribbler Cy Twombly, and the result is a nuanced show that should appeal to aficionados of both painters, as well as, importantly, newcomers to the works of each.

Arcadian Painters draws upon the institution's collection of works by Poussin as well as various loans in order to shed light on the works of both artists. It's funny, because apart from the odd biographical coincidence (they both moved to Rome at the age of 30), a shared interest in the classics, and a quotation from Twombly – “I would've liked to have been Poussin, if I'd had a choice, in another time.” – there isn't much, at first glance, to connect these artists at all.

But gradually it begins to make sense. Room 1 starts by comparing the two artists' differing takes on Arcadia – Poussin's works are dominated by moody shadows, tastefully fleshy nymph-type characters and poker-straight Roman roads. It's all carefully composed, ordered, regimented, and specific in its reference points. Twombly on the other hand is at his best in two untitled, heraldic-shaped paintings: swathes of dark, pine greens are overlaid with a haze of light and spray and vivid, glowing blurs. These are beautiful, powerful works.

Room 2 does a good job of preventing the exhibition becoming simply a series of oppositions, by neatly analysing their similarities in painterly technique, use of colour, and drawn lines. But things then really pick up in Room 3 with Twombly's large 1985 work, Hero and Leander: a mass of smeary painted ripples, dripping with hotly pink explosions and a kind of rich, sensual power.

At moments like this Twombly truly shines – particularly with the later paintings – and Poussin's work sits sullenly in a sad shadow; but in others it's Poussin who's to the fore, his wit and precision in stark contrast to Twombly's occasionally rather juvenile scribblings. In their respective depictions of Parnassus for example, Twombly presents a sporadically frantic journey, whilst Poussin lays out a deceptively static tableau – one rich with interaction and latent significance. Likewise, Poussin's Triumph of Pan (a reproduction of which features in a Twombly work on the opposite wall) is full of humour, energy and life – the tangle of limbs and grins and music and mess given an extra frisson by Poussin's reserved and formal style. 

The show's real highlight, for me, is the final room, and Twombly's four large-scale paintings that represent the seasons, produced incidentally at the exact same age as Poussin painted his own versions. It's a shame that these are limited to a very small reproduction hidden away in the corner, but it's a minor quibble beside the punch of scale and power of Twombly's series. Here his mastery of the materiality and expressive potential of paint reaches an apex in a series full of energy and hinting at so much, as spring's crimson slashes give way to summer's hot, dripping haze, autumn's regal purples, and then to winter, and the half-concealed depths of death.

Throughout the exhibition, Twombly's sculptures are dotted about, picking up little details – pan pipes, reminders of death – that are also found in Poussin's works. Altogether it adds up to a potent exploration of the power of the symbol – as a strategy both to convey significance and to resist singular signification. And this is something that the exhibition echoes rather deftly: there's a lot of text, working hard to bring out layers of meaning, but it's never dogmatic or overbearing.

Arcadian Painters is the kind of exhibition that has the potential to go badly wrong – high concept, lots of accompanying text, lots of art buzzwords (dialogue, juxtaposition etc), and, at £9, quite pricey for a relatively small show. But it works, and brilliantly. Strong, directional curating (by Dr Nicholas Cullinan from Tate Modern, interestingly) combines with sensitivity and a depth of knowledge to produce something that is both innovative and genuinely insightful. It's a rare treat, and a fitting tribute to one of the UK's oldest galleries.

Twombly and Poussin - Arcadian Painters is at Dulwich Picture Gallery until 25th September 2011.

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Tom Jeffreys