Cy Twombly Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings Volume VI covers the final years of the artist’s life, from 2008 to 2011. Bastian’s introductory essay reflects more broadly on motifs and recurrent concerns throughout the artist’s practice rather than focusing heavily on individual artworks or cycles, as previous introductory essays do. Bastian meditates in particular on the sea and its many appearances and instantiations in Twombly’s oeuvre; he returns, as he does consistently throughout his catalogue raisonné introductions, to the work of Stéphane Mallarmé, reflecting on what Twombly called the “white, white, white” of the Mediterranean. Bastian offers extended reflections on Twombly’s late monumental sequence The Rose (2008) and Camino Real (2011), a series which shares the vibrant hues and Bacchic form of his final paintings.

The volume includes more of Twombly’s Bacchus paintings, as well as his formally similar untitled blue iterations, completed in Lexington; scholars focused on the Bacchus series will need to consult volumes IV and V as well, as the longer diachronic span of the series results in appearance in multiple volumes. The Rose is accompanied by Blooming (2001–2008), and use of poetry such as that of Rainer Maria Rilke is prevalent throughout. Twombly’s Leaving Paphos Ringed With Waves works (2008) are also included here.

Relevant literature relating to these final works includes Cy Twombly: Homes and Studios, ed. Nicola del Roscio (2020), which will be of interest for its documentation of Twombly’s working practice; many of the photographs reproduced document the production of these late paintings. For Leaving Paphos Ringed with Waves, see Cy Twombly: Making Past Present, ed. Chistine Kondoleon and Kate Nesin (2020) and the eponymous Gagosian catalogue (2009), with essays by Demosthenes Davvetas and Mary Jacobus. For the Bacchus series (present in cat. rais. volumes V, VI, and VII), see the eponymous Gagosian catalogue (2005), Gary Astrachan’s Naming the Gods: Cy Twombly's Passionate Poiesis (2020), and Dominique Baqué’s Cy Twombly: Sous le signe d’Apollon et de Dionysos (2016). For The Rose, see the eponymous Gagosian catalogue (2009), Mary Jacobus’s Reading Cy Twombly: Poetry in Paint (2016), and Baqué’s Sous le signe. Thierry Greub’s Inscriptions (2022) and (ed.) Cy Twombly: Image, Text, Paratext (2017) are also useful for tracking literary references.

(Publication description by Jamie Danis)

Cy Twombly Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings Volume VI 2008–2011. Edited by Heiner Bastian. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 2014. Fully illustrated. English/German bilingual edition.