Cy Twombly Catalogue Raisonné of Drawings Vol. 8 is the final volume of the set, stretching from 1990 to the artist’s passing in 2011. Nicola Del Roscio’s introductory essay, “The Last Twenty Years,” addresses the arrangement of his homes and studios in Gaeta and Lexington, Virginia, Twombly’s two primary residences in the period. Discussion of Lepanto (2001), Bacchus (various), and Camino Real (2011) will be of particular interest to scholars of the later paintings. Del Roscio also reviews the artist’s collaborations with Gagosian Gallery and the inauguration of the Cy Twombly Pavilion at the Menil Collection, Houston, and he describes Twombly’s production of handmade artist books. Notes about references will be particularly helpful for scholars seeking to track Twombly’s iconography.

The volume opens with a series of Untitled works evocatively inscribed with variations of “Les Fleurs della Cacca” (1990), and indeed, many of the works in this volume bear Twombly’s characteristic irreverence, as noted by Del Roscio in his introduction. Some less common sources for inscriptions appear in these late works, including from John Crowe Ransom and Wallace Stevens. Notable series in this volume include Naumachia (1992) (produced on Jupiter Island and which includes inscriptions from Fernando Pessoa), Untitled (In Beauty it is Finished) (1983–2002), and Irises (various). The handmade artist books are also of particular interest both as a deviation from his set methods of production and as a substantive linking of his literary and artistic pursuits. These books include Untitled (14 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam), Untitled (Contemplation of the Chrysanthemum), Untitled (Rubaiyat), Rubaiyat, and several fully untitled iterations. One particularly notable untitled iteration comprises the artist’s Bacchic red swirls. Several works were produced on Saint Barthélemy; in D’Arros, Seychelles; in Key West, Florida; in Gaeta; in Lexington; and occasionally in Bassano in Teverina.

Related literature includes In Beauty it is finished: Drawings 1951–2008, ed. Mark Francis (2018), produced for an exhibition of the same title that marked the publication of this volume of the catalogue raisonné. (Note that this catalogue may be useful to scholars working on any period of the drawings.) For more on Omar Khayyam and Twombly’s inscriptions, see Thierry Greub, Inscriptions (2022). Cy Twombly: Making Past Present, ed. Christine Kondeleon and Kate Nesin (2020) and Gary Astrachan’s Naming the Gods: Cy Twombly's Passionate Poiesis (2020) also include relevant materials.

(Publication description by Jamie Danis)

Cy Twombly Catalogue Raisonné of Drawings Volume 8 1990–2011. Edited by Nicola Del Roscio. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 2017. Fully illustrated. English edition.