In The Latecomers, when Salo encounters a modern painting in a museum in Germany, his reaction is instant and visceral: “the floor playfully darted away, then flipped overhead, and down he went, hitting first with a bony hip and then an elbow and finally a cheek, which landed in near repose along with the rest of his head” (19). Although Salo has grown up with art, he has never experienced this connection before, and eventually acquires the painting. Although the painter’s name is not immediately mentioned, Jean Hanff Korelitz makes it clear that this is the work of Cy Twombly, a well-known Abstract Expressionist painter.

The painting that Salo sees characterizes some of Twombly’s most famous work, as well as exemplifying many of the characteristics of Abstract Expressionism: “The painting was large and square. It had a kind of fawn-colored background nearly obscured by frantic, scribbled loops of orange and red, relentless, swirling in an exhausting scrawl” (20). Abstract Expressionism is characterized by large scale and the appearance of spontaneity, and the movement revolves around the ideals of freedom and expression. Salo’s attraction to this school of art shows that, like the movement itself, he is modern, and breaking away from his more traditional roots.