Ekphrasis:An Oriental Dance Between Pound's Poetry And Cy Twombly's Painting

Ezra Pound(1885-1972)and Cy Twombly(1928-2011),two epitomes of modern poetry and painting,have long appealed to critics and scholars with a wide range of studies.However,most of the previous researches fail to note any connection between them.Although it is well known that Twombly's art creation was deeply influenced by many great poets including Pound,relevant studies are missing,whereas to some extent,their works are both illuminated by oriental elements.Pound's connection to the oriental world can be traced back to his very early years in the British Museum where he was introduced to the Far Eastern art,and later he was granted the access to the American sinologist Ernest Fenollosa's posthumous manuscripts,and the door of Far Eastern art and literature was swung open to him.It is noteworthy that Fenollosa's knowledge about Chinese literature and art was learned through the Nipponization of ancient Chinese philosophy,including Zen(?,Chan in Chinese)which originated from Indian Buddhism and was later domesticated with Confucianism and Taoism in China.Taoism and Zen share so much in common that they are usually referred to as a compound Taoism-Zen(??).Among the thoughts these two philosophical groups share,the limitation of language or,more comprehensively of representation,is one of the most fundamental one.From“the name that can be named is not the constant name”in Taoism to“go straight into your inner mind,without words”in Zen,the connection is obvious.Later,the similar argument of“no single language is CAPABLE of expressing all forms and degrees of human comprehension”which Pound made in ABC of Reading apparently inherited from the former.After Pound became one of the leading figures in the modernist movement,this Taoism-Zen philosophy,especially regarding the limitation of representation,inevitably has been influencing many other artists including Cy Twombly.Twombly's unique style of freescribbling and painting in certain ways reflects the struggles that are resulted from this idea of limitation,which is very possibly inspired by Pound.This thesis aims to argue for this possibility and will look into the specific proof(including interviews and collection of books)of how Taoism-Zen philosophy reaches Twombly's artistic creation via Pound.From Pound's Chinese poetry to Twombly's art,Taoism-Zen forms an invisible stream connecting the two: poetry and painting.Essentially,Pound and Twombly were both determinedly engaged with these two forms of art: as a poet,Pound was also an art critic;as a painter,Twombly was a“poet” in paint as well.This link,together with their connection in Taoism-Zen philosophy,makes an ekphrastic(inter-art)study of their works possible and valid.In addition,the issue of representation,as one of the fundamental ideas in Taoism-Zen philosophy,can find its stance in the study of ekphrasis as well.Therefore,the thesis attempts to string through poetry and painting as well.Of course,the purpose of the whole argument is to clear the ground for a new poetry-painting inter-reading perspective which should fresh our understandings upon their works.Works for the inter-reading are selected based on three common themes: nature,war and love.In one word,this ekphrastic study is trying to pull a string through Ezra Pound's poetry,Cy Twombly's painting and the oriental Taoism-Zen philosophy where their creations are grounded.