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Cy Twombly

Souvenirs of Time

October 30–November 13, 2021
Rome

Installation view Artwork © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view

Artwork © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view Artwork © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view

Artwork © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view Artwork © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view

Artwork © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view Artwork © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view

Artwork © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view Artwork © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto, M3 Studio

Installation view

Artwork © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio. Photo: Matteo D’Eletto, M3 Studio

Works Exhibited

Cy Twombly, Interior, Bassano in Teverina, 1998 Color dry-print, edition of 3© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Interior, Bassano in Teverina, 1998

Color dry-print, edition of 3
© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Interior, Bassano in Teverina, 1998 Color dry-print, edition of 3© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Interior, Bassano in Teverina, 1998

Color dry-print, edition of 3
© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Dionysus, Rome, 2000 Color dry-print in portfolio, edition of 10© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Dionysus, Rome, 2000

Color dry-print in portfolio, edition of 10
© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Detail of Neoclassical Sculpture, Gaeta, 2000 Color dry-print, edition of 8© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Detail of Neoclassical Sculpture, Gaeta, 2000

Color dry-print, edition of 8
© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Untitled (Detail of Painting), Gaeta, 2002 Color dry-print, edition of 6© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Untitled (Detail of Painting), Gaeta, 2002

Color dry-print, edition of 6
© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Studio, Lexington, 2002 Color dry-print, edition of 6© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Studio, Lexington, 2002

Color dry-print, edition of 6
© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Studio with Bacchus Painting, Gaeta, 2005 Color dry-print, edition of4© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Studio with Bacchus Painting, Gaeta, 2005

Color dry-print, edition of4
© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Painting Detail, Lexington, 2007 Color dry-print, edition of 6© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Painting Detail, Lexington, 2007

Color dry-print, edition of 6
© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Fulton St. Studio, NYC, 2008 Color dry-print, edition of 6© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Fulton St. Studio, NYC, 2008

Color dry-print, edition of 6
© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Studio, Lexington, 2008 Color dry-print, edition of 6© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Studio, Lexington, 2008

Color dry-print, edition of 6
© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Unfinished Painting, Gaeta, 2008 Color dry-print, edition of 6© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Unfinished Painting, Gaeta, 2008

Color dry-print, edition of 6
© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Studio, Lexington, 2008 Color dry-print, edition of 6© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Cy Twombly, Studio, Lexington, 2008

Color dry-print, edition of 6
© Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

About

Gagosian is pleased to announce Souvenirs of Time, an exhibition of photographs by Cy Twombly. On view at Gagosian Rome from October 30 to November 13, 2021, the exhibition surveys the photographs that Twombly took throughout his career of his studios and domestic interiors, and of classical sculptures. Made over a sixty-year period across locations in the United States and Italy, these images chronicle locations that were central to the artist’s life and work.

Twombly was active as a photographer from his days at a student at Black Mountain College in North Carolina in the early 1950s through his death in 2011. He used photography to capture studies of his daily life and motifs that held his interest. His images display an affinity with the Pictorialism of such figures as Edward Steichen and Alfred Stieglitz in their emphasis on soft focus, fine detail, and deliberate composition. Initially using black-and-white film, Twombly later captured vivid hues with a Polaroid camera, enlarging selected images through a special color dry-print process.

In Rome, Souvenirs of Time brings together shots that Twombly took of his studio interiors from the 1950s through the 2000s. These range from his 1950s studio on New York’s Fulton Street to his ateliers in Rome, Bassano in Teverina, and Gaeta in Italy, and in Lexington, Virginia. These images show his paintings and sculpture in situ and in varying states of completion, offering insight into his working process. Additional photographs depict domestic interiors and details of classical sculptures, presenting views of the spaces and forms that inspired him.

Sigh, Sigh, Sigh, a presentation of work by Tacita Dean that includes a series of her own photographs and film of Twombly’s studios in Gaeta and Lexington will be on view concurrently at Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, one floor below the gallery.

The Spring 2021 issue of Gagosian Quarterly features Jonathan Galassi’s poem “After Images,” which was inspired by Twombly’s photographs.

Gagosian will also present a grouping of Twombly’s fruit, flower, and landscape photographs at Paris Photo 2021, on view at the Grand Palais Éphémère from November 11 to 14, 2021.

Gagosian è lieta di annunciare Souvenirs of Time, una mostra di fotografie di Cy Twombly. Visitabile presso Gagosian Roma dal 30 ottobre al 13 novembre 2021, la mostra esamina le fotografie che nel corso della sua lunga carriera Twombly ha dedicato ai suoi atelier, agli spazi privati e alle sculture classiche. Scattate in un periodo di circa sessant’anni negli Stati Uniti e in Italia, queste immagini raccontano i luoghi fondamentali della vita e del lavoro dell’artista.

Twombly si è dedicato alla fotografia fin dai primi anni ’50, quando era studente al Black Mountain College, nel North Carolina, fino alla sua morte nel 2011. Ha utilizzato questo linguaggio per catturare momenti della sua vita quotidiana e soggetti che lo interessavano. Le sue immagini mostrano un’affinità con il Pittorialismo di figure quali Edward Steichen e Alfred Stieglitz con la loro enfasi sulla messa a fuoco soffusa, sul minimo dettaglio e sulla composizione meditata. Dopo aver utilizzato ai suoi esordi la pellicola in bianco e nero, Twombly ha in seguito catturato tonalità vivaci con una Polaroid, ingrandendo alcune immagini attraverso uno speciale processo di stampa a secco a colori.

Souvenirs of Time riunisce quindi gli scatti che Twombly fece degli interni dei suoi atelier dagli anni ’50 fino agli anni 2000: dal suo studio a Fulton Street a New York nel 1950 ai suoi atelier italiani a Roma, a Bassano in Teverina e a Gaeta, e a Lexington, in Virginia. Queste immagini mostrano i suoi dipinti e le sue sculture in situ e in vari stadi di compimento, offrendo una visione approfondita del suo processo di creazione. Altre fotografie ritraggono interni privati e dettagli di sculture classiche, mostrando vedute degli spazi e delle forme che lo hanno ispirato.

Sigh, Sigh, Sigh, una mostra di Tacita Dean, che include una serie di sue fotografie e un filmato degli atelier di Twombly a Gaeta e Lexington, sarà allestita contemporaneamente alla Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, negli spazi sottostanti la galleria.

Sul numero primaverile (2021) del Gagosian Quarterly è pubblicata la poesia di Jonathan Galassi After Images, ispirata alle fotografie di Twombly.

In occasione di Paris Photo (Grand Palais Éphémère, 11–14 novembre 2021), Gagosian presenterà un gruppo di fotografie raffiguranti frutta, fiori e paesaggi di Twombly.

Image of Cy Twombly's Treatise on the Veil (Second Version), 1970

Cy Twombly: Imperfect Paradise

Eleonora Di Erasmo, cocurator of Un/veiled: Cy Twombly, Music, Inspirations, a program of concerts, video screenings, and works by Cy Twombly at the Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, Rome, reflects on the resonances and networks of inspiration between the artist and music. The program was the result of an extensive three-year study, done at the behest of Nicola Del Roscio in the Rome and Gaeta offices of the Cy Twombly Foundation, intended to collect, document, and preserve compositions by musicians around the world who have been inspired by Twombly’s work, or to establish an artistic dialogue with them.

Black and white image of the interior of Cy Twombly’s apartment in Rome

Cy Twombly: Making Past Present

In 2020, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, announced their plan for a survey of Cy Twombly’s artwork alongside selections from their permanent ancient Greek and Roman collection. The survey was postponed due to the lockdowns necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic, but was revived in 2022 with a presentation at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles from August 2 through October 30. In 2023, the exhibition will arrive at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The curator for the exhibition, Christine Kondoleon, and Kate Nesin, author of Cy Twombly’s Things (2014) and advisor for the show, speak with Gagosian director Mark Francis about the origin of the exhibition and the aesthetic and poetic resonances that give the show its title: Making Past Present.

Cy Twombly, Untitled (Say Goodbye, Catallus, to the Shores of Asia Minor), 1994, oil, acrylic, oil stick, crayon, and graphite on three canvases,

Say Goodbye, Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor

Thierry Greub tracks the literary references in Cy Twomblys epic painting of 1994.

Carrie Mae Weems’s The Louvre (2006), on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Summer 2021

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Summer 2021

The Summer 2021 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Carrie Mae Weems’s The Louvre (2006) on its cover.

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1990, acrylic, wax crayon, and pencil on handmade paper, 30 ⅝ × 21 ⅝ inches (77.8 × 54.8 cm)

Twombly and the Poets

Anne Boyer, the inaugural winner of the Cy Twombly Award in Poetry, composes a poem in response to TwomblyAristaeus Mourning the Loss of His Bees (1973) and introduces a portfolio of the painters works accompanied by the poems that inspired them.

Gerhard Richter’s Helen (1963) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Spring 2021

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2021

The Spring 2021 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Gerhard Richter’s Helen (1963) on its cover.

News

Cy Twombly, Roses, Gaeta, 2004 © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio

Art Fair

Paris Photo 2021
Cy Twombly

November 11–14, 2021
Grand Palais Ephémère, Paris
www.parisphoto.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in Paris Photo 2021 with a presentation of photographs by Cy Twombly, featuring fruit, flower, and landscape imagery. These shots are permeated with images of organic growth, depicting heirloom lemons cultivated in Gaeta, Italy; the petals of tulips and roses; and verdant landscapes captured near the artist’s Lexington, Virginia, birthplace. The evocation of vision and memory and the joyful embrace of life embodied by these photographs extend to the pictures that Twombly took in 2011 of crosses and flowers in a cemetery on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy—his final series of photographs.

Cy Twombly, Roses, Gaeta, 2004 © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio