La Chambre Des Reines

1928 - 2011

"I love Twombly's work for what I think it is: a playground of literate thought, paint that seduces and enchants, formal training that connects scale to accomodate scribbles on 20 ' canvases and always a great sense of joy in making them!" - Carolyn Coalson -

 

(click on painting to enlarge and for explanation)

"The first time you view a Twombly, it either hits you as a revelation or it provokes enough distress to bring you back for a second look."  - Richard Polsky -

(click on painting to enlarge and for explanation)

"When Twombly fills a painting with bits of myth, his body -the scratches, scrawls and smears of paint overwhelms any text. Myths act as a kind of animating force behind the bodily pleasure essential to his vision." - Craig Burnett - 

 

 

**Cy Twombly** Born in 1928 in Lexington, Virginia, Twombly studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1947–49); the Art Students League, New York (1950–51); and Black Mountain College in North Carolina (1951–52). In the mid 1950s, following travels in Europe and Africa, Twombly emerged as a prominent figure among a group of artists working in New York that included Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. In 1959, Twombly settled permanently in Italy. He has had numerous one-person exhibitions internationally and has been the subject of major retrospectives in both Europe and America.

Twombly‘s painting combines elements of gestural abstraction, drawing, and writing in a very personal expression. At once epic and intimate, his work is infused with references to literature and aspects of the Mediterranean and Near-Eastern worlds. He is widely collected by museums, his paintings fetch prices over $5 million at auction, and he has always attracted the attention of great writers.

Sources: The Menil Collection, Timesonline
MP3: Vivaldi double cello concerto, Yo Yo Ma & Bobby McFerrin