Untitled 2007 by Cy Twombly, The Peony Blossom Paintings

Claude Monet, a very well known impressionist painter who's work explored the effects of light on subjects rather than precise representations of those subjects, and who's work is widely reproduced today for its decorative qualities on tee shirts, postcards, etc, was not instantly accepted. Although Monet's work now looks comfortably familiar and the subject of the work seems tranquil, serene, and benign, his paintings were met with controversy and disdain when originally exhibited. The word impressionism was taken directly from an insult by an art critic.

The subject of Monet's work is really the light and its effects on objects, so the objects appearing in the paintings whether they be haystacks, seaside cliffs, cathedrals, or flower gardens are secondary. The viewer is presented with new ways of seeing the natural world. Monet imersed himself in the physiological process of seeing, rejected the academic traditions for the way paintings "should be made", and found new territory to express his experience, his joy of seeing and the emotion it produced.

In "Water Lily Pond" 1900 he also included a Japanese bridge from his water lily garden at Giverny, calling up the Japanese influence echoed in many impressionist artists' work of the time.

Cy Twombly, in his current exhibit at The Modern Wing of The Art Institute carries on the tradition of flower painting in his own way. Known for his large scale paintings that blur the line between drawing and painting with scribbles, unique calligraphy, and graffitti, Twombly employs the symbolism of flowers to take viewers to new ways of seeing. Twombly combines this symbolism within the context of his own carreer and his use of historical, mythological, and classical referrences. For example, in another work by Twombly in the Art Institute's collection, "The Second Part of the Return from Parnassus", 1961 [Wax crayon, lead pencil, oil paint, colored pencil on canvas 200 x 260.5 cm (78 3/4 x 102 1/2 in.)] Twombly makes classical referrences and embarks on creating his own language through the mark making.

"The Natural World" exhibit, through paintings of peonies (like the one featured above) and other symbols from the natural world, stands with one foot in the rich traditions of the collective past, one foot in the artist's own carreer and then steps into new territory of exploration. This excerpt from the exhibition catalog explains more of the theme:

The peony’s emblematic associations are rich. Like the chrysanthemum, it is an ancient symbol of aesthetic contemplation commonly associated with Japanese art, most especially Edo-period screen painting. (The six panels of each Peony Blossom Painting echo the six-panel format and proportion of the most popular Japanese folding screens.) The turn to Japonisme is further underscored by Twombly’s five discrete inscriptions, which cite rough translations and fragments by two revered Japanese haiku masters. On the sixth panel, Twombly quoted Takarai Kikaku, whose poem was inspired by the 14-century samurai Kusunoki Masashige:

AH! The Peonies

For which

Kusonoki

Took off his Armour

Presumably the beauty of nature, epitomized here by the wild peony, inspired a momentary pacifism in the warrior. Overcome by reverie, he turned away from battle in order to abandon himself fully to pleasure. In Twombly’s inscription, the initial r in the word armour is smaller than the other letters and was thus likely inserted by the artist as a revision or made to appear as an intentional afterthought. This perhaps intentional pun on the terms amour/armour further conflates the themes of love and violence that shape Kusunoki’s story.

Just when it seems that a well visited subject such as flowers has been exhausted of its potential, that "flower painting" as a tradition is trite and simply decorative, Cy Twombly comes along and gives us overwhelmingly large (The group comprises six 18-foot-long horizontal multipanel paintings), drippingly (literally) gorgeous, vibrantly colored paintings that challenge and satisfy our jaded view and celebrate new ways of seeing. Monet would approve.