Cy Twombly- Text and Image

The role of writing in Twombly’s paintings according to Barthes is that the words become gestures. The words are there to “provoke an object” and give it an “atmosphere”. This allows the words to give the image added meaning or in other words a surplus of meaning that would not otherwise be present. In Twombly’s painting “Mars and the Artist”, The presence of the flower and its attachment to the word artist, as I learned in class, is representative of Twombly himself. The word Mars however is in relation to the Greek god of war. Through this gesture we get the sense that there is some type of conflict being portrayed here. This atmosphere of conflict wouldn’t be acknowledged without the word Mars.