Twombly is remembered for resisting the narrow and rigid movements — Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, and Pop Art — that claimed many of his contemporaries. Blurring the line between painting and drawing, his blackboard paintings turned Jackson Pollock 's skeins of paint into furrows of pencil; his flower paintings transformed de Kooning 's expressive Ab Ex drips and strokes into brash blossoms. While contemporaries like Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg looked to American flags and newspapers for inspiration, Twombly was drawn to more ancient traditions and texts. He was fascinated by tribal art and early Roman graffiti.
The idiosyncratic artist was born in Virginia in 1928, to a father who was a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox. At 12, he began taking private art lessons with Spanish painter Pierre Daura . In 1948, he attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston before studying at the Art Students League of New York , where he met Rauschenberg. The painter encouraged Twombly to attend Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he studied with Franz Kline , Robert Motherwell and Ben Shahn . In 1952, a grant enabled Twombly to travel to North Africa, Spain, Italy, and France. The voyage would have a profound effect on the artist's life and work. After a stint as an army cryptologist — an exercise in decoding texts that undoubtedly influenced his future scrawling style — the artist settled permanently in Italy in 1957. Many believe Gagosian opened a branch in Rome in 2007 in part to please Twombly, who lived just outside the city. The artist is remembered by friends for his flamboyant style (he was known to sport ascots and scarves), as well as for his artistic focus. After completing a painting, "I usually have to go to bed for a couple of days," he said in a rare interview.
In a statement from the gallery, Larry Gagosian said: "The art world has lost a true genius and a completely original talent, and for those fortunate enough to have known him, a great human being. We will not soon see a talent of such amazing scope and intensity... For me personally, it is an incredibly sad day and my thoughts are with Cy's family and close friends."
The Milwaukee Art Center mounted Twombly's first retrospective in 1968, and another at the Kunsthaus Zurich in 1987. It was not until 1994 that he enjoyed his (according to some, long overdue) first retrospective at an American museum. The exhibition, at the Museum of Modern Art , drew mixed reviews. Curator Kirk Varnadoe described Twombly's work as "influential among artists, discomfiting to many critics and truculently difficult." In a review of the exhibition, Washington Post critic Paul Richard called Twombly "a self-indulgent scribbler," "a name-dropper," and a "doodler," though he conceded: "Twombly does have style."
After the MoMA exhibition, Twombly's induction into the art canon was swift. In 1995, the de Menil Collection opened the Renzo Piano -designed Cy Twombly Gallery . Located down the road from its Rothko Chapel , the 9300-square-foot space was developed in collaboration with the artist himself. In 2001, Twombly earned the Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Biennale . Seven years later, the Tate Modern mounted "Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons," his first major retrospective since the 1994 MoMA exhibition and regarded by some as one of the best shows of the year.
Even as he aged and battled cancer, the artist continued to work vigorously. In 2010, Twombly became the third contemporary artist to install a permanent work in the Louvre , painting the ceiling of the Salle des Bronzes and inscribing it with the names of celebrated classical Greek sculptors. Currently, a show on view at Dulwich Picture Gallery in London juxtaposes Twombly's work with that of 17th century French painter Nicholas Poussin . Another, at the Lambert Collection in Avignon, features a selection of Twombly's photographs and was curated by the artist himself. Almost two months ago, an untitled 1967 work by Twombly sold at Christie's for $15.2 million.
In recent years, Gagosian Gallery has become a staunch advocate for Twombly's sculptures, though the artist is best known as a painter. The gallery showed eight new bronze sculptures by the artist in 2009 at its Upper East Side branch. In his assessment of the sculptures, art critic David Sylvester captured the essence of Twombly's entire oeuvre: "The fundamental aesthetic qualities are the same: the luminosity, the lightness of energy of the form, the air of spontaneity, the nervousness of touch, the casual looking execution, here the line that is flowing and yet taut there a trembling stillness...[The sculpture] transmits delight — delight in things and in how light delights in things and things in light."
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