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Cy Twombly

In Beauty it is finished: Drawings 1951–2008

March 8–April 25, 2018
West 21st Street, New York

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Installation video

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Works Exhibited

Cy Twombly, Untitled (In Beauty it is finished), 1983–2002 (detail) Acrylic, wax crayon, pencil, and pen on handmade paper in unbound handmade book, 36 pages, each page: 22 ⅜ × 15 ¾ inches (56.8 × 40 cm)© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled (In Beauty it is finished), 1983–2002 (detail)

Acrylic, wax crayon, pencil, and pen on handmade paper in unbound handmade book, 36 pages, each page: 22 ⅜ × 15 ¾ inches (56.8 × 40 cm)
© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2001 Acrylic, wax crayon, and cut-and-pasted paper on paper, 48 ⅞ × 39 inches (124 × 99 cm)© Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2001

Acrylic, wax crayon, and cut-and-pasted paper on paper, 48 ⅞ × 39 inches (124 × 99 cm)
© Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Rob McKeever

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

Cy Twombly, Untitled (Gaeta), 1990

Acrylic, wax crayon, and pencil on handmade paper, 30 ⅝ × 21 ⅝ inches (77.8 × 54.8 cm)
© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled (Gaeta), 1989 Acrylic and tempera on paper mounted on wood panel, 80 × 58 ⅝ inches (203.2 × 148.9 cm)© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled (Gaeta), 1989

Acrylic and tempera on paper mounted on wood panel, 80 × 58 ⅝ inches (203.2 × 148.9 cm)
© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1970 Oil and wax crayon on paper, 27 ⅝ × 34 ¼ inches (70 × 87 cm)© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1970

Oil and wax crayon on paper, 27 ⅝ × 34 ¼ inches (70 × 87 cm)
© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1969 Oil and wax crayon on paper, 27 ⅝ × 34 ¼ inches (70 × 87 cm)© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1969

Oil and wax crayon on paper, 27 ⅝ × 34 ¼ inches (70 × 87 cm)
© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1954 Gouache, wax crayon, and colored pencil on paper, 19 ⅛ × 25 ¼ inches (48.5 × 64 cm)© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1954

Gouache, wax crayon, and colored pencil on paper, 19 ⅛ × 25 ¼ inches (48.5 × 64 cm)
© Cy Twombly Foundation

About

The image cannot be dispossessed of a primordial freshness which ideas can never claim.
—John Crowe Ransom, The World’s Body (1938)

Gagosian is pleased to present the first career-spanning exhibition of drawings and works on paper by Cy Twombly, organized in association with the Cy Twombly Foundation.

The exhibition marks the completion of the Cy Twombly: Catalogue Raisonné of Drawings, with the eighth and final volume. Edited by Nicola Del Roscio, president of the Cy Twombly Foundation, the catalogue raisonné is published by Schirmer/Mosel with the support of the Cy Twombly Foundation. The catalogue’s first volume was published in 2011.

Throughout his career, Twombly sustained an active engagement with drawing, gesture, and making marks on paper. His urgent, meandering lines embody the intimate energies that carry over into his paintings, sculptures, and photographs. Despite their enigmatic qualities, Twombly’s drawings are strikingly articulate in their rhythm, line, and allusions. At once economical and deeply sensual, they contain a timeless language, mediating between ancient and modern culture.

Read more

Cy Twombly: In Beauty it is finished

Cy Twombly: In Beauty it is finished

Mark Francis, director of the exhibition Cy Twombly: In Beauty it is finished, Drawings 1951–2008, describes the impetus for this expansive presentation, the source for its title, and details the stories of some of the works on view.

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.