In Perspective 2 | Episode Four
Khadijah Queen, Veil(s) in Relation

Cy Twombly, Study for Treatise on the Veil, 1970
[Rome]
The Menil Collection, Houston, Gift of the artist
© The Menil Collection, Houston
The connection between painting, poetry and sound through the eyes of a contemporary poet and writer, Khadijah Queen. Her essay, Veil(s) in Relation, thought specifically for this episode, reflects on the series of Cy Twombly’s Treatise on the Veil paintings and related drawings, intertwining her thoughts on the artworks with the musical pieces by Harold Budd, Mars and the Artist (after Cy Twombly), 2011, and Veil of Orpheus (Cy Twombly’s), 2012, dedicated to Cy Twombly.
In Queen’s words the “veil” becomes a physical material, and metaphorically a mediation tool in language. The artist’s paintings function as a kind of time travel, connecting history to present. The nature of transparency: what we know and believe with our eyes, what history tells us, and what facilitates or prevents that simultaneous connection.


