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Cy Twombly

Eight Sculptures

September 15–October 31, 2009
980 Madison Avenue, New York

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation

Installation video Play Button

Installation video

Works Exhibited

Cy Twombly, Untitled (The Mathematical Dream of Ashurbanipal), 2000–09 Bronze, 41 ⅛ × 20 ⅞ × 21 ⅜ inches (104.5 × 53.1 × 54.2 cm), cast 3/3© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled (The Mathematical Dream of Ashurbanipal), 2000–09

Bronze, 41 ⅛ × 20 ⅞ × 21 ⅜ inches (104.5 × 53.1 × 54.2 cm), cast 3/3
© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2004–09 Bronze, 49 ¼ × 12 ¼ × 11 ⅝ inches (125 × 31.1 × 29.6 cm), cast 3/3© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2004–09

Bronze, 49 ¼ × 12 ¼ × 11 ⅝ inches (125 × 31.1 × 29.6 cm), cast 3/3
© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2009 Bronze, 24 ⅛ × 16 ½ × 14 ¼ inches (61.3 × 42 × 36.3 cm), cast 1/3© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2009

Bronze, 24 ⅛ × 16 ½ × 14 ¼ inches (61.3 × 42 × 36.3 cm), cast 1/3
© Cy Twombly Foundation

About

Bronze unifies the thing. It abstracts the forms from the material. People want to know about what the material constituents are; it helps them identify the work with something. But I want each sculpture to be seen as a whole, as a sculpture.
—Cy Twombly

Gagosian is pleased to present an exhibition of new bronze sculptures by Cy Twombly, coinciding with the inauguration of Gagosian’s Athens gallery with Leaving Paphos Ringed with Waves, an exhibition of the artist’s new paintings. Two major museum exhibitions—Cy Twombly: The Natural World, Selected Works 2000–2007, which inaugurated the new wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Cy Twombly: Sensations of the Moment at Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna—are on view through October 2009.

Since 1946 Twombly has fashioned sculptures from everyday materials and objects, usually painted with white gesso. In 1979 he began casting some of them in bronze, thus unifying, preserving, and transforming them into cohesive wholes independent from the original bricolages. The surfaces and patinas of these cast bronzes evoke weathered artifacts that have been exhumed from the earth, an effect that is heightened in those that have been coated in white oil paint.

Some of these sculptures contain allusions to the static, closed forms of Egyptian and Mesopotamian sculpture, as well as to other architectural and geometric references such as the repetition of rectangular pedestals and circular structures. Others refer to historical representations, such as Untitled (The Mathematical Dream of Ashurbanipal) (2000–09), which alludes to the scholarly Assyrian king whose military prowess was the subject of a rival king’s dream in which his eventual submission to Assyria was predicted. While the components of these sculptures have been partially merged and abstracted by the casting process, in works such as Untitled (2004–09) a progression of precariously balanced objects—in this case, a broom inside a funnel that rests on a cylindrical pedestal—is clearly demarcated. Twombly’s continued play between fragility and obduracy, figuration and abstraction, ancient and modern imbues each work with its characteristic tension.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an essay by Kate Nesin.

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.