Cy TWOMBLY (1928-2011)
See also : USA II Abstract art Abstract art II Art on paper
Chronology : 1957 1959 1960-1969 1962 1968 1969 1970-1979 1970 2000-2009
Chronology : 1957 1959 1960-1969 1962 1968 1969 1970-1979 1970 2000-2009
1957 The Primordial Gesture
2017 SOLD for $ 27.3M including premium
Cy Twombly is interested with the illusion of gesture in the art of Franz Kline. By chance in 1953 he spends his military service as a cryptographer. During this mission he begins to draw intertwined scribbles that are tentatively the hidden expression of a primordial feeling.
In 1957 Twombly spends the summer on the island of Procida in the Bay of Naples. Dazzled by the atmosphere that transcends time, he decides to live in Italy and meets his future wife in Rome.
His art finds at that time the level of complexity which had missed until then. For the first time he positions a proto-writing on a large surface and uses colored pencils. In the midst of the tormented lines created by his impulses a few structured words become readable.
This meaningless writing does not escape the graphology. The primordial art of Twombly will later be analyzed by Roland Barthes. A rising and colorful proto-writing is a mark of optimism or enthusiasm.
On November 15 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 17B an artwork titled Sunset, 142 x 180 cm, made in Rome at the end of 1957. Twombly reinvents here according to his own emotion the creation of the written language : his gesture generated the graphic layout and finally the letter.
The sequel will come soon when he will observe the indecipherable graffiti by which ancient human beings desired to record their ephemeral passions on Roman monuments. The expression of extreme feelings through abstract art becomes the thread of Cy Twombly's lifelong career. The terrible Roman mythology feeds his inspiration.
In 1957 Twombly spends the summer on the island of Procida in the Bay of Naples. Dazzled by the atmosphere that transcends time, he decides to live in Italy and meets his future wife in Rome.
His art finds at that time the level of complexity which had missed until then. For the first time he positions a proto-writing on a large surface and uses colored pencils. In the midst of the tormented lines created by his impulses a few structured words become readable.
This meaningless writing does not escape the graphology. The primordial art of Twombly will later be analyzed by Roland Barthes. A rising and colorful proto-writing is a mark of optimism or enthusiasm.
On November 15 in New York, Christie's sells as lot 17B an artwork titled Sunset, 142 x 180 cm, made in Rome at the end of 1957. Twombly reinvents here according to his own emotion the creation of the written language : his gesture generated the graphic layout and finally the letter.
The sequel will come soon when he will observe the indecipherable graffiti by which ancient human beings desired to record their ephemeral passions on Roman monuments. The expression of extreme feelings through abstract art becomes the thread of Cy Twombly's lifelong career. The terrible Roman mythology feeds his inspiration.
1959 Poems to the Sea by Cy Twombly
2013 SOLD for $ 21.7M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
Cy Twombly sets out to find the origins of thought, and not just of writing. The American history is too recent for this ambition. In 1957 he decides to make long stays in Italy from then on, choosing idyllic villages. In the same year he discovers in Mallarmé's poems the expressive force of silence.
Without apparent link with the Achromes, he inscribes his gestures on white surfaces. Sometimes this false writing aggregates and forms an almost imperceptible word. Sunset, a canvas painted in 1957 with house paint plus various pencils, generates the word Morte (death, in Italian) which is an encounter with a past. This 142 x 180 cm artwork was sold for $ 27.3M including premium by Christie's on November 15, 2017.
In April 1959 in New York, Twombly marries Tatiana, whose family is Italian. They spend the summer in Sperlonga, a fishing village between Rome and Naples.
The Emperor Tiberius had his summer residence in Sperlonga. His villa included a seaside grotto. Two years before Cy and Tatiana's stay, a one of a kind collection of monumental statues on the theme of the legend of Odysseus had been discovered. The cave had collapsed in 27 CE, forcing the emperor to leave for Capri, and the collection had been forgotten. The three artists identified on one of the sculptures had formed according to Pliny the Elder the team of the Laocoon group.
This direct link with mythical emotions is reinforced by the best symbol of the future : the young wife is pregnant. In a crisis of creativity, Twombly paints in a single day in July 1959 in Sperlonga a set of 24 papers of unequal dimensions, between 30 x 31 and 35 x 31 cm, which he calls Poems to the Sea.
As in the example above, the technique is a mixed media on a white ground. The very sparse words and numbers are buried like palimpsests among the lines of an oil painting crushed at the exit of the tube. The most significant hidden word is 'Sappho'. This 24-page abstract pictorial poem was sold for $ 21.7M including premium by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013 over a lower estimate of $ 6M, lot 20.
Without apparent link with the Achromes, he inscribes his gestures on white surfaces. Sometimes this false writing aggregates and forms an almost imperceptible word. Sunset, a canvas painted in 1957 with house paint plus various pencils, generates the word Morte (death, in Italian) which is an encounter with a past. This 142 x 180 cm artwork was sold for $ 27.3M including premium by Christie's on November 15, 2017.
In April 1959 in New York, Twombly marries Tatiana, whose family is Italian. They spend the summer in Sperlonga, a fishing village between Rome and Naples.
The Emperor Tiberius had his summer residence in Sperlonga. His villa included a seaside grotto. Two years before Cy and Tatiana's stay, a one of a kind collection of monumental statues on the theme of the legend of Odysseus had been discovered. The cave had collapsed in 27 CE, forcing the emperor to leave for Capri, and the collection had been forgotten. The three artists identified on one of the sculptures had formed according to Pliny the Elder the team of the Laocoon group.
This direct link with mythical emotions is reinforced by the best symbol of the future : the young wife is pregnant. In a crisis of creativity, Twombly paints in a single day in July 1959 in Sperlonga a set of 24 papers of unequal dimensions, between 30 x 31 and 35 x 31 cm, which he calls Poems to the Sea.
As in the example above, the technique is a mixed media on a white ground. The very sparse words and numbers are buried like palimpsests among the lines of an oil painting crushed at the exit of the tube. The most significant hidden word is 'Sappho'. This 24-page abstract pictorial poem was sold for $ 21.7M including premium by Sotheby's on November 13, 2013 over a lower estimate of $ 6M, lot 20.
1962 A Mythical Frenzy
2017 SOLD for $ 53M including premium
Cy Twombly visits Italy for the second time in 1957. He perceives that Rome is still retaining the traces of the carnal violence of its mythology and of its antique history, in its monuments and their graffiti but also in the tradition transmitted through all these centuries by poets and artists.
He then went to live semi-permanently in Rome where he developed his new style which simultaneously exacerbated all the passions : erotic, pornographic, criminal, scatological. He tries to feel by himself all these impulses in a semi-automatic creative act for which he paints directly with his hands and adds his own graffiti.
The rape of Leda by Jupiter in the form of a swan is for him a complete theme, with his sexual act that generates a mythical fecundity.
In 1962 Twombly executed two Leda and the Swan in the same format 191 x 200 cm certainly chosen to give an idea of the life size representation of this scuffle in an abstraction mixing the illusion of bodies and feathers. One of them is exhibited in the Museum Of Modern Art in New York. The other is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 17, lot 6 B.
The comparison between both works is significant. Their similar explosion demonstrates that the artist's scripture, although based on an impulsive gesture, responds to a pre-defined global conception. The MoMA's Leda is more complete because it includes the usual graffiti missing in the version offered at auction. In both cases in the upper part of the image the small drawing of a modern window appears, symbolizing the artist's message about the timeless character of the passions.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
He then went to live semi-permanently in Rome where he developed his new style which simultaneously exacerbated all the passions : erotic, pornographic, criminal, scatological. He tries to feel by himself all these impulses in a semi-automatic creative act for which he paints directly with his hands and adds his own graffiti.
The rape of Leda by Jupiter in the form of a swan is for him a complete theme, with his sexual act that generates a mythical fecundity.
In 1962 Twombly executed two Leda and the Swan in the same format 191 x 200 cm certainly chosen to give an idea of the life size representation of this scuffle in an abstraction mixing the illusion of bodies and feathers. One of them is exhibited in the Museum Of Modern Art in New York. The other is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 17, lot 6 B.
The comparison between both works is significant. Their similar explosion demonstrates that the artist's scripture, although based on an impulsive gesture, responds to a pre-defined global conception. The MoMA's Leda is more complete because it includes the usual graffiti missing in the version offered at auction. In both cases in the upper part of the image the small drawing of a modern window appears, symbolizing the artist's message about the timeless character of the passions.
Please watch the video shared by Christie's.
1968 Rhythm and Loop
2015 SOLD for $ 71M including premium
Life is not expressed in figuration. Cy Twombly tries the rhythm in a musicalist approach. His long stays in Italy provide the model of the antique graffiti, interesting for several reasons: their juxtaposition let imagine some shapes and movements, details can be pornographic, and their fast and furtive execution is an example of a graphical application of the subconscious.
An automatic writing can be done in pencil on paper, but modern art appeals for large formats. From 1966, Twombly painted canvases in a uniform gray on which he was drawing with a wax crayon the figures of his mind. This series will be identified under the generic name of Blackboards.
The first tests combine the jerky action of the hand, expressing the reflex, with geometric figures that make a link with the former graffiti of the artist. This mixed meaning blurs his intention to express life. His Blackboards do not need to rely on the persistence of ancient impulses. The most interesting Blackboards will be performed in New York.
One of them, 173 x 216 cm, painted in 1968, has been sold for $ 8.7M including premium by Sotheby's on 9 November 2005. An oblique line of high jerky and irregular eight shaped loops runs throughout the width.
About that time, Twombly improves his approach like a proto-writing. The shape of the loop has a graphological value and will vary depending on the mood of the artist at the time of its creation.
On November 11 in New York, Sotheby's sells at lot 18 a 173 x 269 cm blackboard painted by Twombly also in 1968, but later in its maturity than the example discussed above.
The line consists in an entanglement of proto-writings in repetitive loops forming six thick horizontal lines within very regular limits. These lines that become wider from top to bottom of the canvas generate an illusion of perspective.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
An automatic writing can be done in pencil on paper, but modern art appeals for large formats. From 1966, Twombly painted canvases in a uniform gray on which he was drawing with a wax crayon the figures of his mind. This series will be identified under the generic name of Blackboards.
The first tests combine the jerky action of the hand, expressing the reflex, with geometric figures that make a link with the former graffiti of the artist. This mixed meaning blurs his intention to express life. His Blackboards do not need to rely on the persistence of ancient impulses. The most interesting Blackboards will be performed in New York.
One of them, 173 x 216 cm, painted in 1968, has been sold for $ 8.7M including premium by Sotheby's on 9 November 2005. An oblique line of high jerky and irregular eight shaped loops runs throughout the width.
About that time, Twombly improves his approach like a proto-writing. The shape of the loop has a graphological value and will vary depending on the mood of the artist at the time of its creation.
On November 11 in New York, Sotheby's sells at lot 18 a 173 x 269 cm blackboard painted by Twombly also in 1968, but later in its maturity than the example discussed above.
The line consists in an entanglement of proto-writings in repetitive loops forming six thick horizontal lines within very regular limits. These lines that become wider from top to bottom of the canvas generate an illusion of perspective.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1968 The Repetition of the Loops
2016 SOLD for $ 37M including premium
Cy Twombly divided his time between New York and Italy. Near Rome he was entering in communication with the last traces of the intense antique passions. In New York he adapted his own semiotics in search of an absolute that transcends space and time.
Most of his Blackboards were made in New York. This series is prolific, demonstrating that the artist feels being close to achieve his goal. Comparing his works facilitates the interpretation of his thought.
A Blackboard painted with a white wax crayon in 1968 was sold for $ 71M including premium by Sotheby's on 11 November 2015. Its structure is one of the most complex with six horizontal lines, each one being composed of a tight pattern of endless loops. The gradual thickness of the six lines adds an illusion that the image is tilted with respect to its canvas. This opus is also one of the largest, 173 x 229 cm.
On May 11 in New York, Sotheby's sells as lot 21 a painting of nearly identical composition, made in the same year in a smaller format, 152 x 173 cm. The flexibility of the loops is the same, certainly not by imitation but by the effect of the same musical influence, proving that the artist completely controls the reflex movement of his hand in the more or less spirited performance of his proto-writing .
This artwork is experimental. The line is blue on a gray background darker than usual. The intent of this change is not only aesthetic. An additional white wax is used by contrast in the lower left of the image to simulate vertical signs of wear of the board in a counter-sense of the tilted orientation of the blue loops.
I do not know if the artist was satisfied with the result of this additional approach to time but it is taken for sure that he did not reuse this idea. Bought to Castelli in 1969 by its current owner, the unique Blackboard in blue has never been exhibited or published.
The press release of March 18 announced that this lot is expected in excess of $ 40M. I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Most of his Blackboards were made in New York. This series is prolific, demonstrating that the artist feels being close to achieve his goal. Comparing his works facilitates the interpretation of his thought.
A Blackboard painted with a white wax crayon in 1968 was sold for $ 71M including premium by Sotheby's on 11 November 2015. Its structure is one of the most complex with six horizontal lines, each one being composed of a tight pattern of endless loops. The gradual thickness of the six lines adds an illusion that the image is tilted with respect to its canvas. This opus is also one of the largest, 173 x 229 cm.
On May 11 in New York, Sotheby's sells as lot 21 a painting of nearly identical composition, made in the same year in a smaller format, 152 x 173 cm. The flexibility of the loops is the same, certainly not by imitation but by the effect of the same musical influence, proving that the artist completely controls the reflex movement of his hand in the more or less spirited performance of his proto-writing .
This artwork is experimental. The line is blue on a gray background darker than usual. The intent of this change is not only aesthetic. An additional white wax is used by contrast in the lower left of the image to simulate vertical signs of wear of the board in a counter-sense of the tilted orientation of the blue loops.
I do not know if the artist was satisfied with the result of this additional approach to time but it is taken for sure that he did not reuse this idea. Bought to Castelli in 1969 by its current owner, the unique Blackboard in blue has never been exhibited or published.
The press release of March 18 announced that this lot is expected in excess of $ 40M. I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1969 Twombly in Bolsena
2015 SOLD for $ 43M including premium
Cy Twombly went to locate his artworks instead of attributing a title. This practice allows us now to consider how much his stay in Bolsena from May to October 1969 marked a turning point in his art.
Bolsena is in the former Latium but Twombly already moved away from the real or fancy graffiti in the Coliseum. The color stains expressing the bloody dramas of heroic antiquity are no more exciting him. Color is limited to pencil lines competing with gray on large painted canvases.
Aged 41, the artist is certainly less sensitive to pornography and more to communication. His new style is comparable to a graffiti whose insignificant details form an opulent waterfall through the spontaneity of the artist's gesture .
One of his Untitled (Bolsena) 200 x 240 cm was sold for $ 15.4M including premium by Sotheby's on May 13, 2013. Another canvas of same size is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13, lot 43B.
During the same stay in Bolsena, Twombly used the same format for exploring his variant of the white graffiti on black, started two years earlier. One such Untitled was sold for $ 6.2 million including premium by Phillips on 10 May 2012.
This research anticipates the outstanding series of blackboards made on the following year in New York and Rome, particularly disturbing by their false approach to writing and graphology. One of them, 156 x 190 cm, was sold for $ 70M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2014.
Bolsena is in the former Latium but Twombly already moved away from the real or fancy graffiti in the Coliseum. The color stains expressing the bloody dramas of heroic antiquity are no more exciting him. Color is limited to pencil lines competing with gray on large painted canvases.
Aged 41, the artist is certainly less sensitive to pornography and more to communication. His new style is comparable to a graffiti whose insignificant details form an opulent waterfall through the spontaneity of the artist's gesture .
One of his Untitled (Bolsena) 200 x 240 cm was sold for $ 15.4M including premium by Sotheby's on May 13, 2013. Another canvas of same size is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on May 13, lot 43B.
During the same stay in Bolsena, Twombly used the same format for exploring his variant of the white graffiti on black, started two years earlier. One such Untitled was sold for $ 6.2 million including premium by Phillips on 10 May 2012.
This research anticipates the outstanding series of blackboards made on the following year in New York and Rome, particularly disturbing by their false approach to writing and graphology. One of them, 156 x 190 cm, was sold for $ 70M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2014.
1969 Weightlessness in Bolsena
2020 SOLD for $ 39M including premium
Cy Twombly likes to find inspiration in Italy. In 1969 he spends the summer in a Renaissance palace above Lake Bolsena, where he isolates himself to deepen his quest about the primordial generation of human energy through movement. He works with house paint, lead or graphite, wax pencil and sometimes felt-tip pen on canvases 200 x 240 cm.
When he arrives in Bolsena in May, he tries to reinterpret his blackboards without the pseudo-writing in loops. The result is rather austere. An opus was sold for $ 6.2M including premium by Phillips de Pury on May 10, 2012.
He suddenly finds, like everyone else during that summer, a keen interest in the Apollo 11 lunar mission. Temporarily renouncing the dark background, he distributes his floating forms on a cream or off-white surface. Rectangles and numerals replace in this waterfall his signature graffitis of the antique passions.
Fourteen Untitled (Bolsena) respond to this new trend. One of them is very precisely dated July 10, 1969, during the preparation phase of the rocket. It was sold for $ 43M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2015. Another one was sold for $ 15.4M including premium by Sotheby's on May 13, 2013.
Another opus from the same series is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on October 6, lot 16.
When he arrives in Bolsena in May, he tries to reinterpret his blackboards without the pseudo-writing in loops. The result is rather austere. An opus was sold for $ 6.2M including premium by Phillips de Pury on May 10, 2012.
He suddenly finds, like everyone else during that summer, a keen interest in the Apollo 11 lunar mission. Temporarily renouncing the dark background, he distributes his floating forms on a cream or off-white surface. Rectangles and numerals replace in this waterfall his signature graffitis of the antique passions.
Fourteen Untitled (Bolsena) respond to this new trend. One of them is very precisely dated July 10, 1969, during the preparation phase of the rocket. It was sold for $ 43M including premium by Christie's on May 13, 2015. Another one was sold for $ 15.4M including premium by Sotheby's on May 13, 2013.
Another opus from the same series is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on October 6, lot 16.
1970 Cy Twombly in Quest of Writing
2014 SOLD for $ 70M including premium
Cy Twombly was projecting in his art his initial training in cryptology and his aesthetic feelings. In his first Roman period, he imagines that the colored patches that he positions on the canvas are reminiscent of messages too erased for being understood but opening an access to mythical meanings.
From 1966 Twombly continues his semiotic research towards psychoanalysis. On the black canvas that resembles the board of infant schools, he draws in white his messages which are indecipherable in direct reading but speak to the mind of the viewer.
The comparison between two canvases painted in 1970 show that the artist is seeking to express the diversity of humanity as well as his own creativity. Now inspired by graphology, Twombly's art describes and interprets the range of human characters in the fundamental and formative phase of early childhood.
One of these Blackboards, located in New York City, 144 x 178 cm, was sold for $ 17.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012. The writing is nervous, with angles and backtracking.
Another example, 156 x 190 cm, is not located in the title but has been painted after the return to Rome of the artist. It is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12, lot 20.
Here, the fake writing is made of very regular loops as if they came from an intelligent and quiet schoolchild, but their four lines form a tangled hair which widens from top to bottom in a false perspective.
From 1966 Twombly continues his semiotic research towards psychoanalysis. On the black canvas that resembles the board of infant schools, he draws in white his messages which are indecipherable in direct reading but speak to the mind of the viewer.
The comparison between two canvases painted in 1970 show that the artist is seeking to express the diversity of humanity as well as his own creativity. Now inspired by graphology, Twombly's art describes and interprets the range of human characters in the fundamental and formative phase of early childhood.
One of these Blackboards, located in New York City, 144 x 178 cm, was sold for $ 17.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012. The writing is nervous, with angles and backtracking.
Another example, 156 x 190 cm, is not located in the title but has been painted after the return to Rome of the artist. It is estimated $ 35M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 12, lot 20.
Here, the fake writing is made of very regular loops as if they came from an intelligent and quiet schoolchild, but their four lines form a tangled hair which widens from top to bottom in a false perspective.
1970 The Gray Paintings of Cy Twombly
2015 SOLD for £ 19.7M including premium
Cy Twombly is one of the deepest innovators of modern art. Abstraction had liberated art from figuration. Through his work on the emotional subconscious, Twombly freed the art from expressionism. He was early admired and analyzed by the semiologists from Roland Barthes to Philippe Sollers.
Dividing his time between New York and Rome, Twombly developed a global culture, and his fascination for the graffiti on the ancient monuments discorrelated him from time. He endeavored to meet the subconscious of the heroes from the great passionate affairs of antiquity.
In 1966, his gray paintings open up a completely unexplored field of artistic expression. The technique is to carefully prepare a surface of gray paint, then to cover it with an uninterrupted series of loops forming an illegible and meaningless proto-writing, juxtaposed as in a scalp.
This new style allows the artist to explore graphology in its full extent, dominated by reflex and spontaneity, revealing the character, and that even the most intelligent of human beings fails to control.
These artworks are described under the generic term Blackboards chosen by art critics, not by the artist.
Located in New York and executed in 1970, a blackboard 145 x 178 cm in nervous line with jerky points and backtrackings was sold for $ 17.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012. It is again for sale, by Christie's in London on February 11, lot 26.
Between these two sales, the interest of art connoisseurs to Twombly has grown considerably. A blackboard 156 x 190 cm, also made in 1970, in a quiet and regular pseudo-script, was sold for $ 70M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2014.
Dividing his time between New York and Rome, Twombly developed a global culture, and his fascination for the graffiti on the ancient monuments discorrelated him from time. He endeavored to meet the subconscious of the heroes from the great passionate affairs of antiquity.
In 1966, his gray paintings open up a completely unexplored field of artistic expression. The technique is to carefully prepare a surface of gray paint, then to cover it with an uninterrupted series of loops forming an illegible and meaningless proto-writing, juxtaposed as in a scalp.
This new style allows the artist to explore graphology in its full extent, dominated by reflex and spontaneity, revealing the character, and that even the most intelligent of human beings fails to control.
These artworks are described under the generic term Blackboards chosen by art critics, not by the artist.
Located in New York and executed in 1970, a blackboard 145 x 178 cm in nervous line with jerky points and backtrackings was sold for $ 17.5M including premium by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012. It is again for sale, by Christie's in London on February 11, lot 26.
Between these two sales, the interest of art connoisseurs to Twombly has grown considerably. A blackboard 156 x 190 cm, also made in 1970, in a quiet and regular pseudo-script, was sold for $ 70M including premium by Christie's on November 12, 2014.
2005 Confrontation with Bacchus
2017 SOLD for $ 46M including premium
Cy Twombly has always been hypersensitive to political violence whether it comes from myth or from current events. He lives in Gaeta which also houses a NATO naval base. The hypothesis that his series dedicated to Bacchus were triggered by Mediterranean maneuvers during the Iraq war can be considered.
His Bacchus are abstract paintings consisting of a tangle of vermilion loops on a light flesh-colored background. In 2004 the first set of six includes inscriptions from Greek attesting that Bacchus is not here the god of drinking and debauchery but is in his other role of personification of furious madness.
These lasso loops rise and fall between the top and bottom of the picture in endless spirals. Painted by the artist with a wide brush at the end of a long stick, they are not comparable with the proto-writing loops on his blackboards 35 years earlier. Thin vertical drippings give an idea of the sticky wetness of blood or wine.
Twombly does not immediately exhibit this first series because its vertical format 2.66 m high is not conducive enough to the burst of feelings and perhaps also because his art must be expressive by itself to get rid of the inscriptions. The opus V was sold for $ 15.4M including premium by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016.
The artist makes the second series in 2005 in eight paintings that are immediately exhibited as a whole set by Gagosian in New York. The largest variant later numbered V, acrylic on canvas 325 x 494 cm, will be sold by Christie's in New York as lot 15 B on November 15.
In 2008 paintings V and VII from the 2005 group are judiciously positioned side by side during a temporary exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. The artist appreciates that he had not given a sufficient breadth to his own creation. He then executes a third series of six paintings. This ultimate series of Bacchus is not the apotheosis of a hostile god but the culmination of the effort of Cy Twombly's entire career for expressing through abstraction the blind rages of the real world.
His Bacchus are abstract paintings consisting of a tangle of vermilion loops on a light flesh-colored background. In 2004 the first set of six includes inscriptions from Greek attesting that Bacchus is not here the god of drinking and debauchery but is in his other role of personification of furious madness.
These lasso loops rise and fall between the top and bottom of the picture in endless spirals. Painted by the artist with a wide brush at the end of a long stick, they are not comparable with the proto-writing loops on his blackboards 35 years earlier. Thin vertical drippings give an idea of the sticky wetness of blood or wine.
Twombly does not immediately exhibit this first series because its vertical format 2.66 m high is not conducive enough to the burst of feelings and perhaps also because his art must be expressive by itself to get rid of the inscriptions. The opus V was sold for $ 15.4M including premium by Sotheby's on May 11, 2016.
The artist makes the second series in 2005 in eight paintings that are immediately exhibited as a whole set by Gagosian in New York. The largest variant later numbered V, acrylic on canvas 325 x 494 cm, will be sold by Christie's in New York as lot 15 B on November 15.
In 2008 paintings V and VII from the 2005 group are judiciously positioned side by side during a temporary exhibition at the Tate Modern in London. The artist appreciates that he had not given a sufficient breadth to his own creation. He then executes a third series of six paintings. This ultimate series of Bacchus is not the apotheosis of a hostile god but the culmination of the effort of Cy Twombly's entire career for expressing through abstraction the blind rages of the real world.
