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Cy Twombly

Ten Sculptures

November 5–December 20, 1997
980 Madison Avenue, New York

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1997 Bronze, 34 ¼ × 29 × 13 ⅜ inches (87 × 73.7 × 34 cm), edition of 3

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1997

Bronze, 34 ¼ × 29 × 13 ⅜ inches (87 × 73.7 × 34 cm), edition of 3

About

Gagosian is pleased to present an exhibition of Cy Twombly’s Ten Sculptures. This will be the first exhibition held in the United States entirely devoted to this important but relatively less-known aspect of Twombly’s oeuvre.

Cy Twombly, one of the most prominent artists of our time, although primarily known for his paintings and drawings, has been engaged with sculpture since the earliest days of his career. Since then he has produced close to 120 original pieces. His sculptures usually consist of two parts: found objects and clay or plaster. They are all painted white so as to reinforce their unity. Over the last ten or so years, a small selection of the sculptures has been cast in bronze. Twombly explains, “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.”

The ten sculptures in this exhibition are all bronzes, finished in a chalky-white patina reminiscent of the original white paint. They are pale, delicate, and, in the words of David Sylvester, “quite literally often like objects from archaeological sites, in form and in character. They carry the scars of growth and decay, of wear and tear; they have the look of fragile things that have come through. And they have the look too of the residue not of an individual life but of a culture. . . . The sculptures have the scent of antiquity—often of Asian antiquity—in ways that the paintings can’t.”

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by David Sylvester entitled “The World Is Light.”

On the same occasion, the first volume of the newly published catalogue raisonné of Twombly’s sculptures will be launched. Cy Twombly, Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture, Volume 1: 1946–1997, edited by Nicola Del Roscio with an essay by Arthur Danto, will be published by Planco and Schirmer/Mosel.

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.