CY TWOMBLY

Twombly's work has been exhibited widely at major institutions and was the subject of a 2008 Tate Modern retrospective, reflecting his enduring influence on modern and contemporary art.

Early Years

Born in Lexington, Virginia, in 1928, Edwin Parker 'Cy' Twombly Jr. studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1948—1949), and the Art Students League of New York (1950—1951), before enrolling at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he studied under artists such as Franz Kline and Robert Motherwell, graduating in 1952.

A formative moment came in the early 1950s when Twombly travelled through North Africa and Europe with fellow artist Robert Rauschenberg. This trip profoundly influenced his interest in classical antiquity, myth, and the Mediterranean landscape, which became recurring themes in his work. Twombly later settled in Italy in the late 1950s, where he lived and worked for much of his life.

Supported most of his life by the Italian patron, Baron Giorgio Franchetti, Twombly lived in Rome, Italy after moving there in 1957, understandable because of his passion for antiquity. He married Franchetti's sister Tatiana.

Artworks

Twombly's artworks merge abstraction with elements of writing, classical references, and emotive intensity. His compositions feature scribbles, scratches, and scrawled words, bridging the realms of drawing and painting, and balancing raw gesture with intellectual depth.

Scribble and Gesture: Early Abstract Mark-making

Twombly's early works from the 1950s and 60s reflect an intense physical engagement with the canvas. Early paintings, such as School of Athens (1961), Dutch Interior (1962), and Untitled (1964/1984), are characterised by dense surfaces of feathery pencil marks, hovering blotches, and thickly applied gesso, through using unconventional tools like rags and his fingers.

The so-called 'blackboard paintings' of the mid-1960s, made with white wax crayon on grey or slate-toned grounds, evoke looping chalkboard cursive through rhythmic, gestural repetition. Key works from this series include Untitled (Rome) (1966), Untitled (1970), and Untitled (New York City) (1968), the latter of which became Twombly's auction record when it sold at Sotheby's New York in 2015 for US$70.5 million. Spanning over two metres in width, the painting is celebrated for its minimalist elegance and meditative energy, marking a pinnacle of Twombly's exploration of language, structure, and abstraction.

Later Works: Colour, Scale and Emotion

In the 21st century, his approach shifted toward brighter, more saturated colour and a reduced use of pencil. Works like Coronation of Sesostris (2000), Untitled (Bacchus) (2003—2005), Blooming (2001—2008), and Camino Real V (2010) feature more open compositions, with crayon and linear brushwork allowing for greater areas of unpainted canvas, accentuating form and line with airy precision.

What influences Twombly's art?

Cy Twombly's art is deeply influenced by classical mythology, poetry, and history, particularly from the Greco-Roman world. His extensive travels in Europe and North Africa, especially Italy, shaped his lifelong engagement with ancient narratives and landscapes. He also drew from post-war American abstraction, Renaissance painting, and literature—from Sappho and Homer to Rilke and Mallarmé.

Awards and Accolades

• Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, Venice Biennale (2001)
• Praemium Imperiale for Painting, Japan Art Association (1996)
• Officer of the Légion d'honneur, France (2010)

Exhibitions

Cy Twombly has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions at important institutions.

Solo Exhibitions

• Cy Twombly: The Time of a Painting, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid (2021)
• Cy Twombly, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2016—2017)
• Cy Twombly: Photographs 1951—2007, The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (2012)
• Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons, Tate Modern, London (2008)
• Cy Twombly: Lepanto, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2005)
• Cy Twombly: Fifty Years of Works on Paper, Kunsthaus Zürich and Tate Modern, London (2004—2005)
• Cy Twombly: A Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1994)

Group Exhibitions

• Outliers and American Vanguard Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (2018)
• Leap Before You Look: Black Mountain College 1933—1957, ICA Boston (2015)
• America is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2015)
• The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014—2015)
• Abstraction in the Twentieth Century, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1996)
• The New American Painting, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1958)

Further Reading

Twombly's work has been reviewed and discussed in major publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Guardian.

Ocula | 2025