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Cy Twombly

September 15–December 17, 2022
Beverly Hills

Installation Views

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Installation view

Artwork © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Works Exhibited

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2004 Acrylic on canvas, 84 ⅛ × 59 ¾ inches (213.7 × 151.7 cm)© Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2004

Acrylic on canvas, 84 ⅛ × 59 ¾ inches (213.7 × 151.7 cm)
© Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Cy Twombly, Untitled (Bacchus 1st Version III), 2004 Acrylic and wax crayon on wood panel, in artist’s frame, 104 × 78 ¾ × 2 ½ inches (264.2 × 200 × 6.3 cm)© Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Cy Twombly, Untitled (Bacchus 1st Version III), 2004

Acrylic and wax crayon on wood panel, in artist’s frame, 104 × 78 ¾ × 2 ½ inches (264.2 × 200 × 6.3 cm)
© Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Cy Twombly, Scent of a Rose, 2000 Plaster, acrylic, wood, paper, staples, and ink, 22 ⅞ × 14 ⅞ × 11 ¼ inches (58 × 37.8 × 28.5 cm)© Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Cy Twombly, Scent of a Rose, 2000

Plaster, acrylic, wood, paper, staples, and ink, 22 ⅞ × 14 ⅞ × 11 ¼ inches (58 × 37.8 × 28.5 cm)
© Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Jeff McLane

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2007 Acrylic and pencil on wood panel, in artist’s frame, 104 ¾ × 79 × 2 ½ inches (266.1 × 200.7 × 6.3 cm)© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2007

Acrylic and pencil on wood panel, in artist’s frame, 104 ¾ × 79 × 2 ½ inches (266.1 × 200.7 × 6.3 cm)
© Cy Twombly Foundation

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2002 Acrylic, wax crayon, and pencil on handmade paper, in unbound handmade book, 16 pages, each page (approximately): 22 ½ × 15 ¼ inches (56.9 × 38.7 cm)© Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Peter Schälchli

Cy Twombly, Untitled, 2002

Acrylic, wax crayon, and pencil on handmade paper, in unbound handmade book, 16 pages, each page (approximately): 22 ½ × 15 ¼ inches (56.9 × 38.7 cm)
© Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Peter Schälchli

About

Gagosian is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by Cy Twombly, organized in association with the Cy Twombly Foundation. Marking the first appearance of the artist’s work at the Beverly Hills gallery since Cy Twombly: The Last Paintings in 2012, it gathers art produced in the final decade of Twombly’s life.

Gagosian’s exhibition coincides with Cy Twombly: Making Past Present, at the J. Paul Getty Museum from August 2 through October 30, 2022. The first institutional presentation in Los Angeles dedicated to the artist in nearly three decades, Making Past Present explores Twombly’s engagement with the art, culture, and history of the ancient Mediterranean, and will travel to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 2023.

Working in Gaeta, Italy, and Lexington, Virginia, Twombly returned to painting at a large scale in the 2000s. The shift followed his 1994 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the critical success of Lepanto, a suite of twelve paintings first shown at the 49th Biennale di Venezia in 2001. In these works, he adopted a new approach to color with palettes of lush, saturated hues. Slender lines and loops of paint balance expressive dynamism and elegance, while denser strokes evoke the petals of peonies and chrysanthemums. The paintings are imbued with the uninhibited spirit of Bacchanalia and the vivacity of fresh blossoms; at once vital and elegiac, they meditate on poetry, history, and myth.

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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

Isabella Summers. Photo: Kasia Wozniak

Performance

Isabella Summers
To Neptune, Ruler of the Seas Profound

Monday, December 5, 2022, 6:30pm
Gagosian, Beverly Hills

Join Gagosian for a live performance inside the exhibition Cy Twombly at Gagosian, Beverly Hills, by musician, producer, and film and television composer Isabella Summers, a founding member of Florence and the Machine. Titled To Neptune, Ruler of the Seas Profound, the piece is inspired by Twombly’s life and work. The music is interwoven with quotations from poems and literary texts by authors who have served as muses or subjects for Twombly, including Homer, Stéphane Mallarmé, and William Butler Yeats. The performance expands on a composition Summers performed in Rome in May 2022 at the Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio.

Register

Isabella Summers. Photo: Kasia Wozniak