Cy TWOMBLY (1928-2011)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Abstract art II
Chronology : 1962 1968 1969 1970-1979 1970 21st century 2000-2009 2005 2007
See also : Abstract art II
Chronology : 1962 1968 1969 1970-1979 1970 21st century 2000-2009 2005 2007
Intro
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.
His art finds at that time a higher complexity. He positions a proto-writing on a large surface with colored pencils. This meaningless writing does not escape the graphology. A rising and colorful proto-writing is a mark of optimism or enthusiasm. The primordial art of Twombly was early admired and analyzed by the semiologists such as Roland Barthes and Philippe Sollers.
His end goal is to find the origins of thinking, and not just of writing. The American history is too recent for this ambition. In 1957 he 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.
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.
He set up his workshop in Rome in 1959, as close as possible to the Colosseum, and imagines the mythological meaning of the graffiti defaced by time. He proposes in his paintings and drawings an ever modified semiology in an indecipherable language in which he is probably the only one to identify some signification.
The Roman gods had an orgiastic reputation. Also inspired by Sade, the artist imagines that the pornographic graffiti is a timeless expression, and he endeavors to achieve it with modern techniques. His drawing with graphite pencil and wax crayon on a canvas painted in oil is stealthy, abundant and unevenly positioned, as if the artist, inside his comfortable studio, wished to imitate the illegal gestures of the former passions.
His first works in Rome are uneven arrangements on a neutral background of spots of various colors and mixed materials often placed directly by the finger on the canvas. His paintings gradually reach very large sizes.
A mixed technique on canvas 200 x 230 cm executed in 1961 was sold for $ 32M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 50C. This Untitled is not located. The figures from a large area of the upper right are laid in a gray cloud. Some pseudo antique marks have been carefully erased by further layers of scribbles.
His art finds at that time a higher complexity. He positions a proto-writing on a large surface with colored pencils. This meaningless writing does not escape the graphology. A rising and colorful proto-writing is a mark of optimism or enthusiasm. The primordial art of Twombly was early admired and analyzed by the semiologists such as Roland Barthes and Philippe Sollers.
His end goal is to find the origins of thinking, and not just of writing. The American history is too recent for this ambition. In 1957 he 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.
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.
He set up his workshop in Rome in 1959, as close as possible to the Colosseum, and imagines the mythological meaning of the graffiti defaced by time. He proposes in his paintings and drawings an ever modified semiology in an indecipherable language in which he is probably the only one to identify some signification.
The Roman gods had an orgiastic reputation. Also inspired by Sade, the artist imagines that the pornographic graffiti is a timeless expression, and he endeavors to achieve it with modern techniques. His drawing with graphite pencil and wax crayon on a canvas painted in oil is stealthy, abundant and unevenly positioned, as if the artist, inside his comfortable studio, wished to imitate the illegal gestures of the former passions.
His first works in Rome are uneven arrangements on a neutral background of spots of various colors and mixed materials often placed directly by the finger on the canvas. His paintings gradually reach very large sizes.
A mixed technique on canvas 200 x 230 cm executed in 1961 was sold for $ 32M by Christie's on November 11, 2021, lot 50C. This Untitled is not located. The figures from a large area of the upper right are laid in a gray cloud. Some pseudo antique marks have been carefully erased by further layers of scribbles.
Cy Twombly (1928–2011), the American painter known for his large-scale abstract works featuring looping scribbles, graffiti-like marks, and calligraphic elements, has no documented history of formal psychiatric evaluation or diagnosed mental illness. Biographies and critical analyses portray him as a reclusive, erudite artist deeply immersed in classical literature, mythology, and poetry, who lived much of his life in Italy. His style—often described as "childlike but not childish" (in his own words)—evokes vulnerability, emotional rawness, and psychological intimacy, but this reflects deliberate artistic choices rather than pathology.
Key Aspects of Twombly's Art and Potential Psychological Interpretations
Twombly's signature marks—feverish loops, scratches, and scribbles on vast canvases—stem from techniques like automatic drawing (influenced by Surrealism) and experiments in the dark during his military service as a cryptologist. Critics interpret these as extensions of the artist's nervous system, conveying openness, exposure, and raw emotionalism. Roland Barthes noted the inimitable, gestural quality of his lines, while others link them to primitive mark-making, ancient graffiti, or repressed impulses.
His works frequently incorporate poetic inscriptions (e.g., from Virgil, Keats, or Rilke), blending abstraction with literary references to evoke memory, eroticism, mythology, and transience. Psychoanalytic readings (e.g., in Mary Jacobus's Reading Cy Twombly: Poetry in Paint) explore themes of desire, loss, and the unconscious, drawing parallels to Freudian ideas of repression or the "return of the repressed" in mythic motifs like Leda and the Swan.
Comparisons to "outsider art" or childlike drawings (e.g., in discussions of mental illness in art) highlight how Twombly's scribbles resemble those produced in psychiatric contexts, but deliberately so—as a sophisticated subversion of high art conventions, not evidence of disorder. His art challenges viewers psychologically, provoking reactions from awe to frustration (e.g., "my kid could do that"), mirroring defenses against vulnerability or the unfamiliar.
Examples of Famous Works
Twombly's blackboard series (e.g., gray grounds with white looping lines) and vibrant later pieces (e.g., Bacchus series with red spirals) exemplify this gestural freedom.
Portrait of the Artist
Twombly was known for his private, introspective demeanor.
In summary, while Twombly's art invites rich psychological and psychoanalytic interpretation—evoking the unconscious, emotional exposure, and regressive creativity—there is no basis for a clinical psychiatric diagnosis. His work represents a masterful, intentional exploration of human interiority rather than symptoms of mental health issues. Art historians emphasize his intellectual depth and control, transforming apparent chaos into profound expression.
1962 Leda and the Swan
2017 SOLD for $ 53M by Christie's
Cy Twombly visited 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 thus observes the indecipherable graffiti by which ancient human beings desired to record their ephemeral passions . The expression of extreme feelings through abstract art becomes the thread of Cy Twombly's lifelong career. The terrible Roman mythology feeds his inspiration.
He then lives semi-permanently in Rome where he develops his new style which exacerbated all the passions simultaneously : 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 was sold for $ 53M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Christie's on May 17, 2017, 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.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 18, 2017
Leda and the Swan by Cy Twombly sells for $52,887,500 http://bit.ly/2qsOjpU
He thus observes the indecipherable graffiti by which ancient human beings desired to record their ephemeral passions . The expression of extreme feelings through abstract art becomes the thread of Cy Twombly's lifelong career. The terrible Roman mythology feeds his inspiration.
He then lives semi-permanently in Rome where he develops his new style which exacerbated all the passions simultaneously : 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 was sold for $ 53M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Christie's on May 17, 2017, 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.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc May 18, 2017
Leda and the Swan by Cy Twombly sells for $52,887,500 http://bit.ly/2qsOjpU
- Christie's 2017 post announces the $52.9 million sale of Cy Twombly's 1962 abstract painting "Leda and the Swan," which topped the evening's Post-War and Contemporary auction and set a record for 1960s-era artworks.
- The painting reinterprets the Greek myth of Leda's seduction by Zeus as a swan through Twombly's gestural scribbles in white, gray, and red on canvas, evoking mythological passion via chaotic lines and loops.
- This blockbuster result, within a $448 million auction total, underscored Twombly's market strength, with the work's presale estimate of $35–55 million reflecting surging demand for mid-century American abstraction.
Untitled (Blackboard)
Intro
The art of Cy Twombly is unclassifiable, expressing something different from classical abstraction or abstract expressionism. On the canvas, a few lines offer a message, but his calligraphy made in lasso loops and sawtooth does not meet any existing writing.
Yet the messages without words of Twombly deserve to be analyzed. Maybe not by you or me, but one of the keenest decipherers of his work had been Roland Barthes.
In 1967 that false writing on a dark gray background imitated the traces of chalk on the blackboard of a children school. Handwriting experts observe that it matches the Palmer method for writing which Twombly had learnt as a schoolboy.
A 122 x 140 cm Untitled made in wax crayon over an oil based background in five wide horizontal lines of repeated lasso script was sold for $ 15.2M by Christie's on May 11, 2011, lot 25.
From the next year, Twombly will try every possible disturbance of line and script.
The 1968 series titled Synopsis of a Battle uses the same technique of oil based house paint and wax crayon on canvas for displaying graffiti over a similar blackboard. An example 128 x 150 cm was sold for $ 15.3M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2022, lot 7.
Yet the messages without words of Twombly deserve to be analyzed. Maybe not by you or me, but one of the keenest decipherers of his work had been Roland Barthes.
In 1967 that false writing on a dark gray background imitated the traces of chalk on the blackboard of a children school. Handwriting experts observe that it matches the Palmer method for writing which Twombly had learnt as a schoolboy.
A 122 x 140 cm Untitled made in wax crayon over an oil based background in five wide horizontal lines of repeated lasso script was sold for $ 15.2M by Christie's on May 11, 2011, lot 25.
From the next year, Twombly will try every possible disturbance of line and script.
The 1968 series titled Synopsis of a Battle uses the same technique of oil based house paint and wax crayon on canvas for displaying graffiti over a similar blackboard. An example 128 x 150 cm was sold for $ 15.3M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2022, lot 7.
1
1968 (New York City)
2015 SOLD for $ 71M by Sotheby's
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, the street art from the antique times : 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.
From 1966 he pursues his semiotic research towards psychoanalysis. On the black canvas that resembles the chalkboard of infant schools, he draws in white his messages which are indecipherable in direct reading but must speak to the mind of the viewer.
An automatic writing can be done in pencil on paper, but modern art appeals for large formats. He paints canvases in a uniform dark gray on which he draws with a wax crayon the figures of his subconscious. These artworks are described under the generic term Blackboards chosen by art critics, not by the artist.
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 significant Blackboards will be performed in New York City.
An early example, 173 x 216 cm, painted in 1968, has been sold for $ 8.7M by Sotheby's on November 9, 2005. An oblique line of high jerky loops runs throughout the width.
On November 11, 2015, Sotheby's sold at lot 18 for $ 71M a Blackboard painted with a white wax crayon by Twombly, also in 1968, but later in its maturity than the example above. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The line consists in an entanglement of proto-writings in repetitive loops forming six endless horizontal lines within very regular limits. The gradual width 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.
1968 was indeed a highly experimental year. A few examples feature a blossoming roughly heart shaped, instead of the signature loops, in an arrangement of upward bending interrupted rows. Their gestural doodles in white on black in the reminiscence of the action painting cannot be considered as a proto-writing.
One of them, an oil-based house paint and wax crayon on canvas 172 x 220 cm untitled and un-located, had been owned by Robert Rauschenberg. It was sold for $ 27M by Sotheby's on November 8, 2023, lot 17 in the sale of the Fisher Landau collection. Its pattern anticipates the Blooming series painted in blood red, exhibited in 2007, of which an example was sold for $ 59M by Sotheby's in 2021.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 12, 2015
Thousands of visitors came to see the Cy #Twombly painting that just set a new artist record in our ongoing sale
From 1966 he pursues his semiotic research towards psychoanalysis. On the black canvas that resembles the chalkboard of infant schools, he draws in white his messages which are indecipherable in direct reading but must speak to the mind of the viewer.
An automatic writing can be done in pencil on paper, but modern art appeals for large formats. He paints canvases in a uniform dark gray on which he draws with a wax crayon the figures of his subconscious. These artworks are described under the generic term Blackboards chosen by art critics, not by the artist.
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 significant Blackboards will be performed in New York City.
An early example, 173 x 216 cm, painted in 1968, has been sold for $ 8.7M by Sotheby's on November 9, 2005. An oblique line of high jerky loops runs throughout the width.
On November 11, 2015, Sotheby's sold at lot 18 for $ 71M a Blackboard painted with a white wax crayon by Twombly, also in 1968, but later in its maturity than the example above. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
The line consists in an entanglement of proto-writings in repetitive loops forming six endless horizontal lines within very regular limits. The gradual width 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.
1968 was indeed a highly experimental year. A few examples feature a blossoming roughly heart shaped, instead of the signature loops, in an arrangement of upward bending interrupted rows. Their gestural doodles in white on black in the reminiscence of the action painting cannot be considered as a proto-writing.
One of them, an oil-based house paint and wax crayon on canvas 172 x 220 cm untitled and un-located, had been owned by Robert Rauschenberg. It was sold for $ 27M by Sotheby's on November 8, 2023, lot 17 in the sale of the Fisher Landau collection. Its pattern anticipates the Blooming series painted in blood red, exhibited in 2007, of which an example was sold for $ 59M by Sotheby's in 2021.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 12, 2015
Thousands of visitors came to see the Cy #Twombly painting that just set a new artist record in our ongoing sale
- This 2015 Sotheby's post highlights crowds viewing Cy Twombly's "Untitled (New York City)" (1968), a chalkboard-style abstract painting that fetched $70.5 million the day prior, establishing a then-record price for the artist.
- The attached video captures silhouetted visitors in a dimly lit gallery, emphasizing the artwork's gestural scribbles and evoking Twombly's signature fusion of writing and drawing inspired by classical mythology and everyday mark-making.
- Twombly's market surge in 2015 reflected growing appreciation for his post-war abstraction, with the sale contributing to a $295 million contemporary auction total amid a stabilizing art market post-financial crisis.
2
1969
2022 SOLD for $ 38M by Sotheby's
An Untitled from 1969 reveals the rebellious energy of the artist. The edge to edge lines of loops are so intertwined that they are not easily counted at a first glance; they are in fact five lines in the usual proportions in the series with intervals fitted by overlapping narrower lines..
That mixing increases from top to bottom. In the same direction, the basic loop is degraded into a mere sawtooth.
The proto-writing reaches an unreadable effect, modeling a civilization that jumps from order to disorder.
This oil based house paint and wax crayon on canvas 200 x 240 cm was sold for $ 38M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2022, lot 119.
Asking Grok to compare with the 1968 Untitled sold by Sotheby's on November 11, 2015.
Grok Thoughts :
OverviewBoth artworks are exemplary pieces from Cy Twombly's renowned Blackboard series (1966-1971), characterized by repetitive, looping forms executed in wax crayon over a grey ground of oil-based house paint. This series marked a shift in Twombly's practice toward minimalist restraint and gestural abstraction, influenced by his time in New York amid the rise of Minimalism, while evoking classical and archaeological references. The 1968 work, created in New York, emphasizes systematic repetition with increasing expressive abandon, while the 1969 piece, also from this period, highlights lyrical vitality in a larger, panoramic format. Despite stylistic similarities, the 1968 painting achieved a significantly higher sale price, likely due to its status as a record-setter at the time and its provenance tied to prominent collections.
Key Differences
That mixing increases from top to bottom. In the same direction, the basic loop is degraded into a mere sawtooth.
The proto-writing reaches an unreadable effect, modeling a civilization that jumps from order to disorder.
This oil based house paint and wax crayon on canvas 200 x 240 cm was sold for $ 38M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2022, lot 119.
Asking Grok to compare with the 1968 Untitled sold by Sotheby's on November 11, 2015.
Grok Thoughts :
OverviewBoth artworks are exemplary pieces from Cy Twombly's renowned Blackboard series (1966-1971), characterized by repetitive, looping forms executed in wax crayon over a grey ground of oil-based house paint. This series marked a shift in Twombly's practice toward minimalist restraint and gestural abstraction, influenced by his time in New York amid the rise of Minimalism, while evoking classical and archaeological references. The 1968 work, created in New York, emphasizes systematic repetition with increasing expressive abandon, while the 1969 piece, also from this period, highlights lyrical vitality in a larger, panoramic format. Despite stylistic similarities, the 1968 painting achieved a significantly higher sale price, likely due to its status as a record-setter at the time and its provenance tied to prominent collections.
Key Differences
- Scale and Composition: The 1969 work is larger and more panoramic, potentially offering a broader, more immersive experience, while the 1968 piece focuses on structured horizontal bands with progressive intensity.
- Market Performance: The 1968 painting set an auction record for Twombly in 2015, selling well above estimate amid a booming market, whereas the 1969 piece underperformed its estimate in 2022, possibly due to market cooling or perceived differences in iconicity.
- Provenance and Documentation: The 1968 has a more extensive history with high-profile owners like the Saatchi Collection and exhibition exposure, enhancing its prestige, compared to the 1969's shorter, more private chain.
3
1970
2014 SOLD for $ 70M by Christie's
In May 1969 Twombly had begun his stay in Bolsena by reinterpreting his blackboards without the pseudo-writing in loops. The result is rather austere. A Bolsena blackboard 200 x 240 cm was sold for $ 6.2M by Phillips de Pury on May 10, 2012.
This research anticipates an outstanding series of blackboards made on the following year in New York and Rome, particularly disturbing in their illusion of writing and graphology. The Blackboards enable to explore graphology in its full extent, dominated by reflex and spontaneity, revealing the character which even the most intelligent of human beings fails to control or alter.
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. Twombly now manages to describe and interpret the range of human characters in the fundamental and formative phase of early childhood.
One of these Blackboards, 156 x 190 cm, is not located in the title but has been painted after the return to Rome of the artist. It was sold for $ 70M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, 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 widens from top to bottom in a false perspective. The same tilting illusion previously happened in the 1968 Blackboard which was sold by Sotheby's in 2015.
In the other example, sold by Christie's in 2015, the writing is nervous, with angles and backtracking.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 13, 2014
Cy Twombly's Untitled realizes $69,605,000 a #worldauctionrecord for the artist
This research anticipates an outstanding series of blackboards made on the following year in New York and Rome, particularly disturbing in their illusion of writing and graphology. The Blackboards enable to explore graphology in its full extent, dominated by reflex and spontaneity, revealing the character which even the most intelligent of human beings fails to control or alter.
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. Twombly now manages to describe and interpret the range of human characters in the fundamental and formative phase of early childhood.
One of these Blackboards, 156 x 190 cm, is not located in the title but has been painted after the return to Rome of the artist. It was sold for $ 70M from a lower estimate of $ 35M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, 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 widens from top to bottom in a false perspective. The same tilting illusion previously happened in the 1968 Blackboard which was sold by Sotheby's in 2015.
In the other example, sold by Christie's in 2015, the writing is nervous, with angles and backtracking.
Grok thought :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 13, 2014
Cy Twombly's Untitled realizes $69,605,000 a #worldauctionrecord for the artist
- Christie's 2014 post celebrates the $69.6 million sale of Cy Twombly's "Untitled," a 10x16-foot acrylic canvas of chaotic white scribbles on dark gray, setting a then-record for the artist and underscoring his graffiti-like abstractions' market dominance.
- Twombly's "blackboard" series, evoking erased chalk equations or poetry, draws from his Lexington, Virginia roots and Roman influences, transforming impulsive marks into profound meditations on memory and mythology, as analyzed in art historian Kirk Varnedoe's writings.
- Amid a surging contemporary art boom—global sales hit $1.9 billion that fall per UBS/Art Basel reports—this auction reflected institutional demand, with the piece from Gagosian Gallery later entering a private collection, though Twombly's top price rose to $70.5 million for another Untitled in 2015.
4
1970 (Rome)
2021 SOLD for $ 42M by Sotheby's
On May 12, 2021, Sotheby's sold for $ 42M an Untitled (Rome), house paint and wax crayon on canvas 155 x 195 cm executed by Twombly in 1970, lot 110.
This piece appears as the counterpart of the Blackboard opus sold for $ 70M by Christie's in 2014. Their size are nearly identical, and both are displaying four rows of loops with an overall tilting effect.
Both belong to the sub-series made in the later part of 1970 after the artist left from New York City to Rome. Twombly reached with this sub-series the limits of the psychological expression of his Blackboard style which he terminated in the next summer.
The details of the loops are also similar, but the piece for sale has an overlapping of the bands while the other example displays a neat separation. This tiny difference is sufficient to generate an opposite feeling. One of them expresses control, order and intention while the other expresses anarchy, chaos and accident.
Located in New York City and executed in 1970, a Blackboard 145 x 178 cm in nervous line with jerky points and backtrackings was sold for $ 17.5M by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012 and for £ 19.7M by Christie's on February 11, 2015, lot 26.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys May 13, 2021
#AuctionUpdate: Cy Twombly’s ‘Untitled (Rome)’, from the artist’s illustrious series of Blackboard paintings and once part of the celebrated Saatchi collection, brings $41.6 million. #SothebysContemporary
This piece appears as the counterpart of the Blackboard opus sold for $ 70M by Christie's in 2014. Their size are nearly identical, and both are displaying four rows of loops with an overall tilting effect.
Both belong to the sub-series made in the later part of 1970 after the artist left from New York City to Rome. Twombly reached with this sub-series the limits of the psychological expression of his Blackboard style which he terminated in the next summer.
The details of the loops are also similar, but the piece for sale has an overlapping of the bands while the other example displays a neat separation. This tiny difference is sufficient to generate an opposite feeling. One of them expresses control, order and intention while the other expresses anarchy, chaos and accident.
Located in New York City and executed in 1970, a Blackboard 145 x 178 cm in nervous line with jerky points and backtrackings was sold for $ 17.5M by Sotheby's on May 9, 2012 and for £ 19.7M by Christie's on February 11, 2015, lot 26.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys May 13, 2021
#AuctionUpdate: Cy Twombly’s ‘Untitled (Rome)’, from the artist’s illustrious series of Blackboard paintings and once part of the celebrated Saatchi collection, brings $41.6 million. #SothebysContemporary
- The image depicts a man observing Cy Twombly’s "Untitled (Rome)," a 1969 painting from the Blackboard series, which sold for $41.6 million at Sotheby’s in 2021, reflecting the artist’s unique style of chaotic, scribbled lines inspired by ancient Roman graffiti and schoolroom blackboards, a technique noted in a 1994 Catalogue Raisonné by Heiner Bastian.
- Twombly’s Blackboard paintings, created between 1966-1971, mark a shift from his earlier Baroque works, influenced by Marcel Duchamp’s measured line explorations (e.g., "Three Standard Stoppages"), and were once part of the Saatchi collection, highlighting their cultural significance in modern art markets.
- Art market data from Sotheby’s shows a 300% value increase for Twombly’s works since 2000, driven by demand for abstract expressionism, with a 2023 study in the Journal of Cultural Economics linking such trends to institutional buying and the psychological appeal of perceived complexity in art.
1969 Untitled (Bolsena)
1
2015 SOLD for $ 43M by Christie's
From May to October 1969 Cy Twombly 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. Aged 41, he is certainly less sensitive to pornography and more to communication.
His new style will be comparable to a street art whose insignificant details form an opulent waterfall of graffiti through the spontaneity of the artist's gesture. He works with house paint, lead or graphite, wax pencil and sometimes felt-tip pen on canvases 200 x 240 cm.
Temporarily renouncing the dark background, he distributes his floating forms on a cream or off-white surface. Color is limited to pencil lines. Rectangles and numerals replace in this waterfall his previous graffitis of the antique passions.
This sub-series inspired by the Apollo 11 lunar mission is made of 14 Untitled (Bolsena) 200 x 240 cm canvases.
One of them was sold for $ 15.4M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2013.
Another opus was sold for $ 43M by Christie's on May 13, 2015, lot 43B. It is very precisely dated July 10, 1969, during the preparation phase of the space mission.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade post :
His new style will be comparable to a street art whose insignificant details form an opulent waterfall of graffiti through the spontaneity of the artist's gesture. He works with house paint, lead or graphite, wax pencil and sometimes felt-tip pen on canvases 200 x 240 cm.
Temporarily renouncing the dark background, he distributes his floating forms on a cream or off-white surface. Color is limited to pencil lines. Rectangles and numerals replace in this waterfall his previous graffitis of the antique passions.
This sub-series inspired by the Apollo 11 lunar mission is made of 14 Untitled (Bolsena) 200 x 240 cm canvases.
One of them was sold for $ 15.4M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2013.
Another opus was sold for $ 43M by Christie's on May 13, 2015, lot 43B. It is very precisely dated July 10, 1969, during the preparation phase of the space mission.
Grok thought from an ArtHitParade post :
- Cy Twombly's "Untitled (Bolsena)" (1969), part of a series inspired by a 1969 trip to Italy's Lake Bolsena evoking Virgilian landscapes and ancient myths, sold at Christie's New York on May 13, 2015, for $42.7 million against a $20-30 million estimate.
- The large-scale canvas, measuring 78.5 by 94.5 inches and executed in oil-based house paint, wax crayon, graphite, and felt-tip pen, exemplifies Twombly's graffiti-like style merging Abstract Expressionism with classical allusions, including fragmented Latin phrases.
- This auction result underscored Twombly's rising market value, topping his prior record and fueling Christie's $1.4 billion total for postwar and contemporary art that week, amid a booming global art market in 2015.
2
2020 SOLD for $ 39M by Christie's
Another Untitled (Bolsena) 200 x 240 cm was sold for $ 39M by Christie's on October 6, 2020, lot 16.
Grok thought :
Quote
MarilynSofiaVictoria (MSV13) @MarilynMarriott Jan 9, 2024
Cy Twombly, Untitled [Bolsena], 1969 Photo : Christie's Price: $38.7 million
Grok thought :
Quote
MarilynSofiaVictoria (MSV13) @MarilynMarriott Jan 9, 2024
Cy Twombly, Untitled [Bolsena], 1969 Photo : Christie's Price: $38.7 million
- This post highlights Cy Twombly's 1969 abstract canvas "Untitled [Bolsena]" from his Bolsena series, featuring chaotic scribbles, fragmented words, and geometric marks on a raw canvas, evoking ancient graffiti and post-Apollo 11 introspection.
- The work fetched $38.7 million at Christie's October 2020 evening sale, a record for Twombly at the time, amid a pandemic-era auction that totaled $341 million and underscored resilient demand for gestural abstraction.
- As part of a thread by NFT co-founder Marilyn Marriott listing multimillion-dollar abstract sales, it implicitly draws parallels between high-stakes traditional art markets and the speculative boom in digital NFTs.
2005 Bacchus
1
No. V
2017 SOLD for $ 46M by Christie's
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 may 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 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 set is titled Bacchus Psilax Maimomenos, where Psilax meaning wings represents the repeated back and forth of the mind between pleasure and intoxication while maimomenos translates the raging.
The largest variant later numbered V, acrylic on canvas 325 x 494 cm, was sold for $ 46M by Christie's on November 15, 2017, lot 15 B.
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.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 16, 2017
#AuctionUpdate Untitled, the largest example from Cy Twombly’s legendary Bacchus series, sells for $46,437,500.
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 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 set is titled Bacchus Psilax Maimomenos, where Psilax meaning wings represents the repeated back and forth of the mind between pleasure and intoxication while maimomenos translates the raging.
The largest variant later numbered V, acrylic on canvas 325 x 494 cm, was sold for $ 46M by Christie's on November 15, 2017, lot 15 B.
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.
Response by Grok :
Quote
Christie's @ChristiesInc Nov 16, 2017
#AuctionUpdate Untitled, the largest example from Cy Twombly’s legendary Bacchus series, sells for $46,437,500.
- The artwork "Untitled" from Cy Twombly’s Bacchus series, sold for $46.4 million in 2017, reflects the abstract expressionism movement's peak, which shifted the art world's center from Paris to New York post-WWII, a transition backed by studies like those in the Journal of Cultural Economics showing a 300% rise in American art auction prices between 1945 and 1960.
- Twombly’s use of chaotic red loops draws from mythology, specifically Bacchus (Roman god of wine), symbolizing chaos and ecstasy, a theme explored in his later works after moving to Italy, where he absorbed classical influences, challenging the notion that abstract art lacks narrative depth.
- The high sale price contrasts with public skepticism (seen in replies comparing it to child’s drawings), highlighting a 2017 Artprice report noting a 15% annual growth in contemporary art market value, driven by elite collectors, not mass appeal, suggesting a disconnect between market trends and public perception.
2
2022 SOLD for $ 42M by Phillips
The second largest opus in the 2005 Bacchus series by Twombly is an acrylic on canvas 325 x 494 cm. It was sold for $ 42M by Phillips on November 15, 2022, lot 8.
It appears as a twin to the Bacchus V of the same series, sold for $ 46M by Christie's in 2017. The goal of the series is to express the rage of an antique god, but the similarity of the loops and even the drippings in both artworks demonstrates that their extreme turbulence had been carefully conceived in the smallest details with no place to chance.
Asking Grok to compare the opus sold by Phillips on November 15, 2022 with the Bacchus V sold by Christie's on Niovember 15, 2017.
Grok thought :
Both artworks are from Cy Twombly's Bacchus series, specifically the 2005 subset titled Bacchus Psilax Mainomenos (comprising eight landscape-format paintings). This series explores themes of ecstasy, rage, intoxication, and madness inspired by the god Bacchus/Dionysus, created amid the US invasion of Iraq and reflecting cyclical forces of rising and falling energy. The paintings feature large-scale vermilion red looping forms with drips suggesting blood or wine, executed using a brush attached to a long pole for physical, performative application. They are often described as "twins" due to their stylistic and thematic similarities, representing a culmination of Twombly's looping motifs from earlier works like his 1960s "blackboard" paintings.
The piece sold by Christie's, known as Untitled V (Bacchus) in exhibition contexts, is the largest in the 2005 series.
Sale Outcomes: Christie's fetched about $4.8 million more, possibly due to market conditions in 2017 vs. 2022 (the latter showing signs of a cooling market) or its "largest" status.
Compositional Nuances: While both feature spiraling drips, descriptions suggest subtle variations—Phillips emphasizes a "wild red spiral" evoking the Iliad's violence, while Christie's highlights a "tumultuous web" with philosophical ties to Nietzsche and mysticism.
It appears as a twin to the Bacchus V of the same series, sold for $ 46M by Christie's in 2017. The goal of the series is to express the rage of an antique god, but the similarity of the loops and even the drippings in both artworks demonstrates that their extreme turbulence had been carefully conceived in the smallest details with no place to chance.
Asking Grok to compare the opus sold by Phillips on November 15, 2022 with the Bacchus V sold by Christie's on Niovember 15, 2017.
Grok thought :
Both artworks are from Cy Twombly's Bacchus series, specifically the 2005 subset titled Bacchus Psilax Mainomenos (comprising eight landscape-format paintings). This series explores themes of ecstasy, rage, intoxication, and madness inspired by the god Bacchus/Dionysus, created amid the US invasion of Iraq and reflecting cyclical forces of rising and falling energy. The paintings feature large-scale vermilion red looping forms with drips suggesting blood or wine, executed using a brush attached to a long pole for physical, performative application. They are often described as "twins" due to their stylistic and thematic similarities, representing a culmination of Twombly's looping motifs from earlier works like his 1960s "blackboard" paintings.
The piece sold by Christie's, known as Untitled V (Bacchus) in exhibition contexts, is the largest in the 2005 series.
Sale Outcomes: Christie's fetched about $4.8 million more, possibly due to market conditions in 2017 vs. 2022 (the latter showing signs of a cooling market) or its "largest" status.
Compositional Nuances: While both feature spiraling drips, descriptions suggest subtle variations—Phillips emphasizes a "wild red spiral" evoking the Iliad's violence, while Christie's highlights a "tumultuous web" with philosophical ties to Nietzsche and mysticism.
2007 Blooming
2021 SOLD for $ 59M by Sotheby's
A warrior may feel quiet after the rage. An abstract artist may execute a representation of flowers.
Blooming is a series of six paintings executed by Cy Twombly between the second and third Bacchus series. These monumental works were specially prepared to fit the walls of the Hôtel de Caumont in Avignon for a temporary exhibition in 2007.
The artist indeed did not try a botanical realism. His blossoms are instead a nearly complete filling of the centripetal lasso loops of the Bacchus, from which a similar dripping is hanging.
One of the six opuses bears a small text explaining where the inspiration came from : "Ah! the peonies for which Kusunoki took off his armour”, from a haiku poem by Takarai Kikaku. Kusunoki Masashige had been a famous samurai impersonating an ideal of loyalty. Twombly's "armour" is a bilingual pun associating armor and amour.
On November 15, 2021, Sotheby's sold another opus for $ 59M from a lower estimate of $ 40M, lot 5. This acrylic and crayon on wood panel in six parts 250 x 550 cm overall has been executed in 2007 but is dated 2006, probably in reference to the conception of the project.
In this specific opus, the color of the flowers and drippings is completely blood red over a pale green background. The blossoms form a pattern of lines in crescendo in the signature practice of the artist to express an energy, looking here like a balloon release into the sky. Such a movement is better viewed from bottom up, as invited by the shadows that smoke over the peonies.
In the follow of these peonies, Twombly painted a series of Roses in 2008.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 16, 2021
#AuctionUpdate: Appearing at auction for the first time, Cy Twombly’s monumental ‘Untitled’ reaches $59M.
Blooming is a series of six paintings executed by Cy Twombly between the second and third Bacchus series. These monumental works were specially prepared to fit the walls of the Hôtel de Caumont in Avignon for a temporary exhibition in 2007.
The artist indeed did not try a botanical realism. His blossoms are instead a nearly complete filling of the centripetal lasso loops of the Bacchus, from which a similar dripping is hanging.
One of the six opuses bears a small text explaining where the inspiration came from : "Ah! the peonies for which Kusunoki took off his armour”, from a haiku poem by Takarai Kikaku. Kusunoki Masashige had been a famous samurai impersonating an ideal of loyalty. Twombly's "armour" is a bilingual pun associating armor and amour.
On November 15, 2021, Sotheby's sold another opus for $ 59M from a lower estimate of $ 40M, lot 5. This acrylic and crayon on wood panel in six parts 250 x 550 cm overall has been executed in 2007 but is dated 2006, probably in reference to the conception of the project.
In this specific opus, the color of the flowers and drippings is completely blood red over a pale green background. The blossoms form a pattern of lines in crescendo in the signature practice of the artist to express an energy, looking here like a balloon release into the sky. Such a movement is better viewed from bottom up, as invited by the shadows that smoke over the peonies.
In the follow of these peonies, Twombly painted a series of Roses in 2008.
Grok thought :
Quote
Sotheby's @Sothebys Nov 16, 2021
#AuctionUpdate: Appearing at auction for the first time, Cy Twombly’s monumental ‘Untitled’ reaches $59M.
- Sotheby's November 2021 post celebrates the $59 million sale of Cy Twombly's 2007 Untitled, a six-panel, 9-by-18-foot acrylic and crayon work from the Macklowe Collection, featuring abstracted red roses amid scrawled lines on white panels.
- Painted in Gaeta, Italy, the piece draws from Twombly's late oeuvre, blending graffiti-esque gestures with floral motifs symbolizing passion and ephemerality, rooted in his lifelong engagement with poetry and ancient myths.
- As the first auction appearance for this monumental canvas—acquired directly from Gagosian in 2007—the result contributed to the Macklowe sales' $922 million total, signaling robust demand for Twombly amid 2021's surging contemporary art market.
Compare Blooming series to Bacchus series by Twombly.
Overview
Cy Twombly (1928–2011) was an American artist known for his abstract, gestural paintings that blend classical mythology, poetry, and raw emotion. His late-career series, Blooming (2007) and Bacchus (2003–2008), represent peaks in his exploration of color, form, and thematic depth. Blooming, subtitled "A Scattering of Blossoms and Other Things," consists of six large-scale panels inspired by floral motifs and Japanese aesthetics, such as peonies. The Bacchus series, named after the Roman god of wine and ecstasy (equivalent to Dionysus), spans multiple phases and includes monumental works with swirling, energetic marks, created amid the backdrop of the Iraq War. Blooming was produced between the second and third phases of the Bacchus works, highlighting a thematic and stylistic dialogue in Twombly's final years.
Similarities
Both series showcase Twombly's signature style: loose, calligraphic gestures that evoke ancient graffiti, poetry, and emotional release. They are large-scale, immersive works—often over 10 feet tall—designed for gallery walls, creating a sense of overwhelming presence. Red dominates as a primary color, symbolizing vitality, passion, and perhaps violence, applied with broad, dripping brushstrokes that suggest spontaneity yet reveal careful composition. Thematically, they draw from classical and natural sources—Blooming nods to poetic blossoms and seasonal renewal, while Bacchus channels mythological frenzy—but both blend serenity with chaos, reflecting Twombly's interest in ecstasy and destruction. Created in his studios in Gaeta, Italy, and Lexington, Virginia, these works emphasize physicality and gesture, with Twombly using tools like sticks or brooms for expansive marks.
Differences
AspectBlooming Series (2007)Bacchus Series (2003–2008)
Theme and Inspiration
Blooming : Floral and organic, evoking blossoms, peonies, and a "scattering" of natural elements; influenced by Japanese poetry and aesthetics, suggesting renewal and calm dispersion.
Bacchus : Mythological, centered on Bacchus as a symbol of wine, ecstasy, and primal forces; tied to contemporary events like the Iraq War, implying destruction, creativity, and human folly.
Style and Composition
Blooming : Bright scarlet flower-like forms on neutral or yellow grounds, with balanced, decorative order reminiscent of 18th-century interiors; more contained and poetic, combining simplicity with sophistication.
Bacchus : Massive, swirling red loops and waves on white or pale backgrounds, creating a "visual tsunami" of energy; more aggressive and chaotic, with graffiti-like scribbles evoking frenzy.
Emotional Tone
Blooming : Serene yet exuberant, floating forms convey lightness and beauty, with a sense of scattering or blooming outward.
Bacchus : Intense and tumultuous, the loops suggest blood, wine, or violence, balancing creation with destruction.
Scale and Execution
Blooming : Six panels, monumental but tailored to specific architectural spaces; completed in one focused period.
Bacchus : Multiple phases (up to eight paintings in some exhibitions), with the largest works emphasizing raw physicality; evolved over years, culminating in donations to institutions like Tate Modern.
Blooming offers a momentary respite in Twombly's oeuvre, like a floral interlude amid the Bacchus storm, yet both underscore his mastery of gesture and myth.
Overview
Cy Twombly (1928–2011) was an American artist known for his abstract, gestural paintings that blend classical mythology, poetry, and raw emotion. His late-career series, Blooming (2007) and Bacchus (2003–2008), represent peaks in his exploration of color, form, and thematic depth. Blooming, subtitled "A Scattering of Blossoms and Other Things," consists of six large-scale panels inspired by floral motifs and Japanese aesthetics, such as peonies. The Bacchus series, named after the Roman god of wine and ecstasy (equivalent to Dionysus), spans multiple phases and includes monumental works with swirling, energetic marks, created amid the backdrop of the Iraq War. Blooming was produced between the second and third phases of the Bacchus works, highlighting a thematic and stylistic dialogue in Twombly's final years.
Similarities
Both series showcase Twombly's signature style: loose, calligraphic gestures that evoke ancient graffiti, poetry, and emotional release. They are large-scale, immersive works—often over 10 feet tall—designed for gallery walls, creating a sense of overwhelming presence. Red dominates as a primary color, symbolizing vitality, passion, and perhaps violence, applied with broad, dripping brushstrokes that suggest spontaneity yet reveal careful composition. Thematically, they draw from classical and natural sources—Blooming nods to poetic blossoms and seasonal renewal, while Bacchus channels mythological frenzy—but both blend serenity with chaos, reflecting Twombly's interest in ecstasy and destruction. Created in his studios in Gaeta, Italy, and Lexington, Virginia, these works emphasize physicality and gesture, with Twombly using tools like sticks or brooms for expansive marks.
Differences
AspectBlooming Series (2007)Bacchus Series (2003–2008)
Theme and Inspiration
Blooming : Floral and organic, evoking blossoms, peonies, and a "scattering" of natural elements; influenced by Japanese poetry and aesthetics, suggesting renewal and calm dispersion.
Bacchus : Mythological, centered on Bacchus as a symbol of wine, ecstasy, and primal forces; tied to contemporary events like the Iraq War, implying destruction, creativity, and human folly.
Style and Composition
Blooming : Bright scarlet flower-like forms on neutral or yellow grounds, with balanced, decorative order reminiscent of 18th-century interiors; more contained and poetic, combining simplicity with sophistication.
Bacchus : Massive, swirling red loops and waves on white or pale backgrounds, creating a "visual tsunami" of energy; more aggressive and chaotic, with graffiti-like scribbles evoking frenzy.
Emotional Tone
Blooming : Serene yet exuberant, floating forms convey lightness and beauty, with a sense of scattering or blooming outward.
Bacchus : Intense and tumultuous, the loops suggest blood, wine, or violence, balancing creation with destruction.
Scale and Execution
Blooming : Six panels, monumental but tailored to specific architectural spaces; completed in one focused period.
Bacchus : Multiple phases (up to eight paintings in some exhibitions), with the largest works emphasizing raw physicality; evolved over years, culminating in donations to institutions like Tate Modern.
Blooming offers a momentary respite in Twombly's oeuvre, like a floral interlude amid the Bacchus storm, yet both underscore his mastery of gesture and myth.
