Cy Twombly

Galleria La Tartaruga, Rome
Galleria Schwarz, Milan
Renée Lachowsky, Brussels (acquired from the above in the early 1960s)
A gift to the father of the present owner by the above in 1971

 

Heiner Bastian, Cy Twombly Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume II: 1961-1965, Munich, 1993, cat. no. 58, p. 114, illustrated in color

This painting is in excellent condition. Please contact the Contemporary Art department at 212-606-7254 for the condition report prepared by Terrence Mahon. The work is framed in a black painted wood strip frame flush to the canvas which is mounted in a slightly larger black painted wood strip frame with gilt facing and a small float.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

In 1957, the American born artist Cy Twombly moved to Italy. Settling in Rome, the artist was drawn to the dolce vita that he perceived as characteristic of the city. In Twombly's words, "I went to Rome in the fifties, which was a whole other world from what it is now. It's not the same city. In a sense, the life is totally different. It had more space, you could see it and you could enjoy it." (David Sylvester, Interviews with American Artists, New York, 2001, p. 173).  Untitled (Roma) from 1961 is a reflection of the place that Twombly perceives as being lost to history. This painting is a more intimate and personal manifestation of the mythical landscapes Twombly painted of Rome's cultural legacy, where the grandiosity of the landscape fills the horizon, limited only by the imagination. Indeed, the sensibility of Untitled (Roma) 1961 reflects something of the tradition of the Grand European Tour, of the plein air painting done by American artists who traveled to the birthplace of the Renaissance in order to understand the great tradition of Western art and art history. In terms of Twombly's own progress as an artist, Untitled (Roma) 1961 is a concise work, representative of his strong stylistic vocabulary of the early 1960s in which the intensity of his mark-making is reinforced by its dense application. While the line remains Twombly's primary tool in Untitled (Roma), the pencil works to fill the canvas with compacted compositional forms that are alternately punctuated or enveloped with the sensation of painting. In Twombly's words, "I am a painter and my whole balance is not having to think about things. So all I think about is painting. It's the instinct for placement where all that happens... I cannot sit and make an image. I cannot make a picture unless everything is working. It's like a state." (Ibid., p. 179).

Untitled (Roma) 1961 is an idyllic presentation of the Italian landscape in the artist's inimitable and immediately recognizable haptic vernacular. Originally from Virginia, landscapes were a favorite subject matter of the artist whose compositions often linger between abstraction and representation. Yet, as much as the composition itself can be read as a landscape, the mechanics of Twombly's marks are related to and dictated by gestural abstraction. It is the suggestion of place and time through Twombly's gesture that grounds the viewer in the canvas, but the details of the suggested reality are left obscure. As with most of Twombly's paintings, the formal understanding of the work hinges on the edge of cerebral clarity. Here, is the Rome of Jupiter, the Caesars or Popes, or perhaps all as the fantasy of the past inflects the understanding of the present. Art historian Gregor Stemmrich describes the confounding of spatial and temporal location in Twombly's paintings in these terms: "[The viewers] thus feel obligated to ask about the historical place that appears to them as a painting. But this question not only presumes a relationship to history but also implies that image and reality have been pushed together into the unity of a historical place. The painting cannot be measured by a reality but rather creates and permits references." (Exh. Cat., Vienna, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiflung Ludwig Wien, Cy Twombly States of Mind, 2009, p. 76).

Architecture was another passion of Twombly's, and Rome itself is of course a city defined by its resplendent and influential architecture. The grandeur of Rome's civic buildings honored the Gods and intimidated its enemies. It was a place where rationality met mysticism and monuments were constructed as statements of power. Of course ideas espoused in Rome continue to serve the builders of republics in the modern era. This kind of real-life mythical incarnation becomes the ideal subject for Twombly's mode of painting. The history of the city is intertwined with the powerful architectural legacy left by those who held powerful sway over the populace. Now, those architectural elements of the city that have survived many centuries become enmeshed in the botanical landscape that now grows alongside the centuries-old stone edifices. The agitation of Twombly's hand and gesture stands in opposition to the solidity of objects: the imperceptible growth of a tree branch and the challenged stability of stone architecture are suggested by the frenetic pencil graphite and oil paints that are applied with an aggression that is more akin to erasure than creation.

It is in this space between negation and suggestion that Twombly's works find their powerful resonance. And through the opposition of these binary qualities, Twombly gives new possibilities to the expressiveness of landscape painting. Here color is used sparingly in keeping with the subject matter. The creamy swirls and loops of paint in Untitled (Roma) 1961 embrace the atmospheric qualities of wind and air or the presence of a spirit that is imperceptible by the earthbound mind.