In the video above, curator Nicholas Cullinan narrates a first look at the exhibition Twombly and Poussin: Arcadian Painters on view at the Dulwich Picture Gallery from June 29 – September 25, 2011.
In the video, Cullinan justifies the pairing with direct one-to-one connections – juxtaposing the light that falls on a country road in Poussin’s painting A Roman Road with “verdant tone” and misty spray-paint effects in an adjacent Twombly painting. Such direct comparisons, however, are unnecessary – the relationship between these painters is a natural one. Separated by over three hundred years, both artists investigate shared interests, mythology and landscape, through a shared medium, paint on canvas. Their common motivations and means make the aesthetic differences in their work all the more exciting.