Thursday 10 March 2011

Cy Twombly 1990s - 2000s

Here is the third selection of works by Cy Twombly, featuring work from the 1990s and 2000s. For biographical and backgound information on Twombly, see part 1.


 1990 Liri


 1990 Summer Madness


 1990 Untitled


 1993-4 Quattro Stagioni, Part III, Autunno


 2000 Coronation of Sesostris (3)


 2000 Coronation of Sesostris (10)


 2001 Lepanto (1)


 2005 Untitled


 2005 Untitled


 2005-6 III Notes from Sarah (1)


 2008 The Rose II


 2010 Camino Real II

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Cy Twombly 1970s - 1980s

Here is the second selection of works by Cy Twombly, featuring work from the 1970s and 1980s. For biographical and backgound information on Twombly, see part 1.


1970 Untitled


1970 Untitled


1974 Natural History Part I, Mushrooms no. IV


1974 Untitled


1975 Apollo and the Artist


1978 Ilians in Battle


1980 Pan II


1982 Untitled


1983 Anabasis


1983 Lycian


1984 Hero and Leandro, Part 1


1984 Proteus


1985 Wilder Shores of Love


1986 Untitled


1988 Untitled


1989 Untitled


Monday 7 March 2011

Cy Twombly 1950s – 1960s

I like Cy Twombly’s work so much, and his oeuvre is spread over such a long period that I am featuring his work over three blogs, dealing first with the 1950s – 1960s, followed by the 1970s – 1980s, and finally the 1990s – 2000s.

Twombly is an American artist well known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings. Twombly was born in 1928 in Lexington, Virginia. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and at Washington and Lee University in Lexington. From 1950 to 1951, he studied at the Art Students League of New York where he met Robert Rauschenberg, who encouraged him to attend Black Mountain College near Asheville, North Carolina. At Black Mountain in 1951 and 1952 he studied with Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell and Ben Shahn, and met John Cage.

The Kootz Gallery in New York organized Twombly's first solo exhibition in 1951. At this time his work was influenced by Kline's black-and-white gestural expressionism, as well as Paul Klee’s imagery. In 1952, he received a grant from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, which enabled him to travel to North Africa, Spain, Italy and France.
On his return in 1953 he served in the army as a cryptologist, an activity that left a distinct mark on his artistic style. From 1955 to 1959, he worked in New York, where he became a prominent figure among a group of artists including Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. In 1959 he went to Italy, settling permanently in Rome. It was here that he began to work on a larger scale and distanced himself from his former expressionist imagery.

Twombly was invited to exhibit his work at the Venice Biennale in 1964. In 1968, the Milwaukee Art Museum mounted the first retrospective of his art. The artist has also been honored by retrospectives at the Kunsthaus Zürich in 1987, the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, in 1988, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1994, with additional venues in Houston, Los Angeles, and Berlin. The Cy Twombly Gallery of the Menil Collection in Houston, which was designed by Renzo Piano and opened in 1995, houses more than thirty of Twombly's paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, dating from 1953 to 1994. A large collection of Twombly's work is also kept by the Museum Brandhorst and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich.


 1951 Min-Oe


 1953 Quazazat


 1953 Tiznit


 1953 Untitled


 1953 Untitled


 1955 Free Wheeler


 1957 Blue Room


 1957 Untitled


 1958 The Castle


 1959 View


 1960 Untitled


 1961 Ferragosto


 1961 Ferragosto IV


 1961 Ferragosto V


 1961 Untitled


 1963 Leda and the Swan


 1964 School of Athens


 1968 Untitled