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Cy Twombly

May 25–July 29, 2017
Merlin Street, Athens

Installation view Artwork © Nicola Del Roscio Foundation. Photo: Silia Psychi

Installation view

Artwork © Nicola Del Roscio Foundation. Photo: Silia Psychi

Installation view Artwork © Nicola Del Roscio Foundation. Photo: Silia Psychi

Installation view

Artwork © Nicola Del Roscio Foundation. Photo: Silia Psychi

Installation view Artwork © Nicola Del Roscio Foundation. Photo: Silia Psychi

Installation view

Artwork © Nicola Del Roscio Foundation. Photo: Silia Psychi

Installation view Artwork © Nicola Del Roscio Foundation. Photo: Silia Psychi

Installation view

Artwork © Nicola Del Roscio Foundation. Photo: Silia Psychi

Works Exhibited

Cy Twombly, Untitled (Gaeta), 2008 Color dry-print, 10 ¼ × 9 ⅞ inches (26 × 25.1 cm), edition 4/6© Nicola Del Roscio Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled (Gaeta), 2008

Color dry-print, 10 ¼ × 9 ⅞ inches (26 × 25.1 cm), edition 4/6
© Nicola Del Roscio Foundation

Cy Twombly, Brushes (Lexington), 2005 Color dry-print, 17 × 11 inches (43.2 × 27.9 cm), edition 6/6© Nicola Del Roscio Foundation

Cy Twombly, Brushes (Lexington), 2005

Color dry-print, 17 × 11 inches (43.2 × 27.9 cm), edition 6/6
© Nicola Del Roscio Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2002 Color dry-print, 10 ¼ × 9 ⅞ inches (26 × 25.1 cm), edition 4/6© Nicola Del Roscio Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2002

Color dry-print, 10 ¼ × 9 ⅞ inches (26 × 25.1 cm), edition 4/6
© Nicola Del Roscio Foundation

Cy Twombly Dionysus (Rome), 1984/1991 Portfolio of 1 dry-ink photograph, 11 ⅝ × 10 ⅞ inches (29.5 × 27.5 cm), AP 2/2© Nicola Del Roscio Foundation

Cy Twombly Dionysus (Rome), 1984/1991

Portfolio of 1 dry-ink photograph, 11 ⅝ × 10 ⅞ inches (29.5 × 27.5 cm), AP 2/2
© Nicola Del Roscio Foundation

About

To my mind, one does not put oneself in place of the past; one only adds a new link.
—Cy Twombly

Gagosian is pleased to present an exhibition of Cy Twombly’s photography, to coincide with Divine Dialogues at the Museum of Cycladic Art. Curated by Nikolaos Stampolidis, from the Museum of Cycladic Art, and Jonas Storsve, curator of the recent Twombly retrospective at Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, Divine Dialogues shows Twombly’s work alongside classical antiquities.

The gallery exhibition comprises more than twenty photographs of natural subjects—including tulips, strawberries, cabbages, and lemons—taken in Rome and Gaeta, Italy, between 1985 and 2008, as well as a bronze sculpture. From his days as a student at Black Mountain College in North Carolina during the early 1950s until his death in 2011 at the age of 83, Twombly captured his daily life in photographs. He recorded the verdant landscapes of Virginia and the coasts of Italy, close-up details of ancient buildings and sculptures, studio interiors, and still lifes of objects and flowers.

Beginning in the early 1990s, Twombly used specialized copiers to enlarge his Polaroid images on matte paper, resulting in subtle distortions that approximate the timeless qualities of his paintings and sculptures with their historical and literary allusions. Recalling the Pictorialism of photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, the expressive nature of Twombly’s prints transcends the mechanical aspects of the medium.

Έχω τη γνώμη πως δεν υποκαθιστούμε το παρελθόν, απλώς προσθέτουμε έναν καινούριο κρίκο στην αλυσίδα.
—Cy Twombly

Η γκαλερί Gagosian της Αθήνας παρουσιάζει μια έκθεση με φωτογραφίες του Cy Twombly, η οποία συμπίπτει χρονικά με την έκθεση Θεϊκοί διάλογοι στο Μουσείο Κυκλαδικής Τέχνης. Σε επιμέλεια του Νικόλαου Σταμπολίδη, διευθυντή του Μουσείου Κυκλαδικής Τέχνης, και του Jonas Storsve, επιμελητή της πρόσφατης μεγάλης αναδρομικής έκθεσης του Twombly στο Centre Georges Pompidou στο Παρίσι, οι Θεϊκοί διάλογοι αναδεικνύουν το έργο του Twombly καθώς αυτό “συνομιλεί” με τα εκθέματα της ελληνικής αρχαιότητας.

Στους χώρους της γκαλερί εκτίθενται περισσότερες από 20 φωτογραφίες με θέματα που αντλούσε από τη φύση (τουλίπες, φράουλες, λάχανα, λεμόνια), τα οποία ο καλλιτέχνης είχε φωτογραφίσει στη Ρώμη και στην Γκαέτα μεταξύ 1985 και 2008, όπως κι ένα μπρούντζινο άγαλμα. Από τις αρχές της δεκαετίας του 1950 που σπούδαζε στο Black Mountain College έως και τον θάνατό του το 2011 σε ηλικία 83 ετών, ο Twombly απαθανάτιζε την καθημερινότητά του σε φωτογραφίες. Από τα καταπράσινα τοπία στη Βιρτζίνια και στις ακτές της Ιταλίας, έως λεπτομέρειες αρχαίων κτιρίων και γλυπτών, εσωτερικούς χώρους διαφόρων ατελιέ, και νεκρές φύσεις με αντικείμενα και λουλούδια.

Από τις αρχές της δεκαετίας του 1990 ο Twombly άρχισε να χρησιμοποιεί ειδικά φωτοτυπικά μηχανήματα για να μεγεθύνει σε ματ χαρτί τις φωτογραφίες που τραβούσε με Polaroid, με αποτέλεσμα να δημιουργεί σχεδόν ανεπαίσθητες παραμορφώσεις οι οποίες προσιδιάζουν στη διαχρονική αξία που χαρακτηρίζει τους πίνακες και τα γλυπτά του με τις ιστορικές και λογοτεχνικές αναφορές. Η εκφραστική φύση των εκτυπώσεων του Twombly παραπέμπει στον Πικτοριαλισμό φωτογράφων όπως ο Alfred Stieglitz και την ίδια στιγμή υπερβαίνει τα μηχανικά στοιχεία του μέσου που χρησιμοποιεί.

Image of Cy Twombly's Treatise on the Veil (Second Version), 1970

Cy Twombly: Imperfect Paradise

Eleonora Di Erasmo, cocurator of Un/veiled: Cy Twombly, Music, Inspirations, a program of concerts, video screenings, and works by Cy Twombly at the Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, Rome, reflects on the resonances and networks of inspiration between the artist and music. The program was the result of an extensive three-year study, done at the behest of Nicola Del Roscio in the Rome and Gaeta offices of the Cy Twombly Foundation, intended to collect, document, and preserve compositions by musicians around the world who have been inspired by Twombly’s work, or to establish an artistic dialogue with them.

Black and white image of the interior of Cy Twombly’s apartment in Rome

Cy Twombly: Making Past Present

In 2020, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, announced their plan for a survey of Cy Twombly’s artwork alongside selections from their permanent ancient Greek and Roman collection. The survey was postponed due to the lockdowns necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic, but was revived in 2022 with a presentation at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles from August 2 through October 30. In 2023, the exhibition will arrive at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The curator for the exhibition, Christine Kondoleon, and Kate Nesin, author of Cy Twombly’s Things (2014) and advisor for the show, speak with Gagosian director Mark Francis about the origin of the exhibition and the aesthetic and poetic resonances that give the show its title: Making Past Present.

Cy Twombly, Untitled (Say Goodbye, Catallus, to the Shores of Asia Minor), 1994, oil, acrylic, oil stick, crayon, and graphite on three canvases,

Say Goodbye, Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor

Thierry Greub tracks the literary references in Cy Twomblys epic painting of 1994.

Carrie Mae Weems’s The Louvre (2006), on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Summer 2021

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Summer 2021

The Summer 2021 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Carrie Mae Weems’s The Louvre (2006) on its cover.

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1990, acrylic, wax crayon, and pencil on handmade paper, 30 ⅝ × 21 ⅝ inches (77.8 × 54.8 cm)

Twombly and the Poets

Anne Boyer, the inaugural winner of the Cy Twombly Award in Poetry, composes a poem in response to TwomblyAristaeus Mourning the Loss of His Bees (1973) and introduces a portfolio of the painters works accompanied by the poems that inspired them.

Gerhard Richter’s Helen (1963) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Spring 2021

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2021

The Spring 2021 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Gerhard Richter’s Helen (1963) on its cover.