Edited by Nicola Del Roscio. Text by Laszlo Glozer, Thierry Greub, Simon Schama, Kirk Varnedoe.
Painted poetry: the ultimate monograph on Cy Twombly’s painting, drawing, sculpture and photography
Recognized as one of the greatest and most idiosyncratic artists of the postwar era, Cy Twombly left behind an oeuvre of incredible versatility, sensitivity and originality upon his death in 2011 at age 83. Working in the immediate aftermath of abstract expressionism, Twombly developed an intensely personal scription consisting of scrawled letters and words, in an effusive, calligraphic mark-making that suggests a kind of painted poetry. Working across painting, drawing, sculpture and photography with a restless energy, Twombly incorporated the gods of Ancient Greece, the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé and the history, culture and mythology of the Occident into his art. The Essential Cy Twombly, edited by Twombly's longtime collaborator Nicola Del Roscio, is the ultimate overview of his work, presenting the most important paintings and cycles of paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs from Twombly's diverse oeuvre. The most accessible survey of his work to date, this volume includes essays by Laszlo Glozer, Thierry Greub, Kirk Varnedoe and Simon Schama.
Edwin Parker (Cy) Twombly (1928–2011) was born in Lexington, Virginia. He lived and worked in New York in the early 1950s (where he met Robert Rauschenberg, with whom he was to have a long personal and artistic relationship) and studied at the legendary Black Mountain College in North Carolina before traveling around North Africa, Spain and Italy and ultimately settling in Rome before the end of the decade, just as the art world was shifting its center of gravity to New York. Best known for his paintings and drawings, often executed on a massive scale across multiple canvases, Twombly also made sculptures and photographs.
"Untitled" (1990) is reproduced from The Essential Cy Twombly.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Bookforum
Albert Mobilio
Having nearly sixty years of work at hand provides abundant evidence of the paradox governing Twombly's art-the interesting play between the epic scope of his cultural materials and the enigmatic, deeply personal means of their representation.
Twombly's art instructs, perplexes, and ultimately seduces.
Another Magazine
Twombly has remained the subject of great interest and research, with two enlightening new books – The Essential Cy Twombly and Cy Twombly: Paradise – hitting the shelves this autumn.
Publisher's Weekly
T. Fleischmann
The Essential Cy Twombly, compiled by Nicole Del Roscio, Twombly's longtime companion, presents paintings as well as rarely shown photographs and scultpures from an artist who spent hours drawing in the dark to develop his shaky, spontaneous lines.
W Magazine
The Editors
Exhibit A, Artistc flourishes show her creative side.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
Nicola's Irises (1990) is reproduced from The Essential Cy Twombly, back in stock as of this week! In his epic Introduction, noted art historian Simon Schama writes, "I have always thought 'Twombly' ought to be (if it isn't already) a verb, as in twombly: (vt.): to hover thoughtfully over a surface, tracing glyphs and graphs of mischievous suggestiveness, periodically touching down amidst discharges of passionate intensity. Or, then again, perhaps a noun, as in twombly (n.): A line with a mind of its own. Don't be deceived by the courtly gracefulness of the Virginian translated to Italy; the lightly worn erudition; the genteel touch of his botanizing. The truth is that Twombly, at various times in his long, prolific and protean career, has often been something of a scrapper, not in the sense in which his persona has ever exuded the kind of tear-away grab-baggy ebullience of his old comrade, Rauschenberg, much less the hard-ass daemon-father, Pollock. Rather, Twombly has always enjoyed tearing a strip off the tendency of abstract painting towards its own monumentalism (enshrined for instance in the temple-like vacancies of color-field stains). His was the trash-rooting, bricolage-rummaging, cut-and-paste, slash and smear moment; a dumpster-full of wiry, rusty ganglia; a wall, raucous with hoodlum graffiti. Twombly's resistance to 'finish'; even to the all-over, fused, and thickly melded texture of Pollock's abstractions; his courage in performing looser, more disarrayed traces, is especially apparent in the works on paper, where the dog-eared, the torn-away, the dimpled, crumpled, chewed-up, and grubby are all enthusiastically welcomed into the creative process." continue to blog
Though Cy Twombly is best known as one of the great painters of the post-war era, he also produced an awesome body of drawings, sculpture and photography over the course of his eighty-three years on earth. Featured photo, Peonies (1980) is reproduced from The Essential Cy Twombly, the ultimate overview, back in stock at last. When the book first came out, Bookforum's Albert Mobilio wrote, "This volume provides a complete survey of Twombly’s oeuvre, including his sculpture and photography, and features pointedly insightful essays that help crack the artist’s code of script and signs. Having nearly 60 years of work at hand provides abundant evidence of the paradox governing Twombly’s art—the interplay between the epic scope of his cultural materials and the enigmatic, deeply personal means of their representation… Of course, none of [Twombly's] ideation, however elegant in its intricacy, would mean much if the images themselves weren’t beautiful—or, to be more accurate, beautiful in their subversion of 'beauty.' Twombly’s art instructs, perplexes, and ultimately seduces." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 10 x 11.5 in. / 240 pgs / 160 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $75.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $99 ISBN: 9781938922459 PUBLISHER: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers AVAILABLE: 9/30/2014 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers. Edited by Nicola Del Roscio. Text by Laszlo Glozer, Thierry Greub, Simon Schama, Kirk Varnedoe.
Painted poetry: the ultimate monograph on Cy Twombly’s painting, drawing, sculpture and photography
Recognized as one of the greatest and most idiosyncratic artists of the postwar era, Cy Twombly left behind an oeuvre of incredible versatility, sensitivity and originality upon his death in 2011 at age 83. Working in the immediate aftermath of abstract expressionism, Twombly developed an intensely personal scription consisting of scrawled letters and words, in an effusive, calligraphic mark-making that suggests a kind of painted poetry. Working across painting, drawing, sculpture and photography with a restless energy, Twombly incorporated the gods of Ancient Greece, the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé and the history, culture and mythology of the Occident into his art. The Essential Cy Twombly, edited by Twombly's longtime collaborator Nicola Del Roscio, is the ultimate overview of his work, presenting the most important paintings and cycles of paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs from Twombly's diverse oeuvre. The most accessible survey of his work to date, this volume includes essays by Laszlo Glozer, Thierry Greub, Kirk Varnedoe and Simon Schama.
Edwin Parker (Cy) Twombly (1928–2011) was born in Lexington, Virginia. He lived and worked in New York in the early 1950s (where he met Robert Rauschenberg, with whom he was to have a long personal and artistic relationship) and studied at the legendary Black Mountain College in North Carolina before traveling around North Africa, Spain and Italy and ultimately settling in Rome before the end of the decade, just as the art world was shifting its center of gravity to New York. Best known for his paintings and drawings, often executed on a massive scale across multiple canvases, Twombly also made sculptures and photographs.
