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When the Hermitage in St. Petersburg celebrated the city's 300th anniversary in 2003, they assembled a selection of 50 years of Cy Twombly's works on paper, coinciding with the artist’s seventy-fifth birthday. At first look, even the most savvy and well-heeled art lover is apt to think "my kid could do that," and there is a (very surface) bit of truth to this. Twombly, an American who moved to Rome in the 1950s, was obviously influenced by Jean Dubuffet's idea of art brut, as well as the work of Paul Klee, and of children. But it doesn't take long to see Twombly's genius. He created something very new with the pure gestures of abstract expressionism, and in this survey it's a joy to see the ways his work constantly changed, from adopting some of the formal strictures of minimalism in the 1970s to embracing vivid colors in the 1980s. Like the graffiti scratches (ancient and modern) that are perhaps Twombly’s greatest influence, it's very playful, often rather dirty work. Unlike graffiti, it's exceptionally labored over. Once you can decipher his scratchy line, you notice that the subtle interplay of words and images is matched by very few others, though the work of Raymond Pettibon and Nancy Spero do spring to mind. Assembled for the St. Petersburg's show's arrival at the Whitney Museum in New York City, this book is a joy. Simon Schalma's essay is ribald, terse and excellent, while Roland Barthes’ writing is, unsurprisingly, worth the price of the book alone. In a review for the New York Times of the show at the Whitney that this book accompanies, Holland Coter wrote that Twombly's early highly referential works are "as if Western cultural history was unfolding on the walls of a toilet stall." It's hard to think of higher praise. --Mike McGonigal
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Book Description
Cy Twombly's gestures are some of the most beloved in 20th century art. The painter, graphic artist, sculptor and photographer is prized above all for the sweeping, scribbled marks that he makes with his drawing instruments. Though mostly indecipherable, at least on a literal level, Twombly's colorful, dense gestures are compellingly articulate in their rhythm, line, allusion and mood. Deeply sophisticated and sensual, they follow in the footsteps of Western tradition while speaking resolutely in the hushed and tentative tones of the modern age, defying prevailing stylistic clichés and mediating between the old and new worlds. This exceptional volume presents 50 years of drawings by the artist, most taken from his own personal collection. Foreword by Mikhail Piotrovsky.~Introduction by Simon Schama. Hardcover, 10 x 13.5 in./144 pgs / 82 color 0 BW0 duotone 0 ~ Item D20334
