Cy Twombly: The Printed Graphic Work, 1953–2002 is the updated English edition of the only catalogue raisonné of graphic works, edited by Heiner Bastian, who also completed the catalogues raisonnés of paintings. Bastian notes that “the technical data pertaining to the works were critically reviewed and rewritten” (5) here; this edition therefore supersedes the earlier German one. In his introductory essay, “Most Fleeting of All Forms,” Bastian situates Twombly’s relatively sparse work in this medium relative to both contemporaries—e.g., Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol—and predecessors—e.g., Pablo Picasso. Bastian glosses the relative restraint required by the medium relative to the rest of Twombly’s practice but notes the persistence of “writing’s unadulterated realm of allusion” (18). He considers Notes I–IV (1967) and the subsequent Roman Notes (1970) in relative depth, and surfaces collections to Leonardo da Vinci and to Pliny’s Natural History. He situates the role of Twombly’s inscriptions within his practice and discusses recurrent motifs such as boats in the works in which they appear, e.g. the Lepanto aquatints (1996).

Though there are fewer than 100 works in total in this volume, these are nevertheless of consistent significance in the context of Twombly’s broader practice. There are “blackboard”-like scribbles in Notes (1967) and Roman Notes. Untitled (1971) is similarly a precursor to Twombly’s later Bacchus works. Other significant inclusions are Twombly’s Natural History Part I: Mushrooms (1974) and Natural History Part II Some Trees of Italy (1975–76); Six Latin Writers and Poets (1976) and Five Greek Poets and a Philosopher (1978); his 1993 collaboration with Octavio Paz; and Lepanto I, II, and III (1996). The volume will also be of interest for those thinking about Twombly’s engagement with contemporary artists. Twombly’s Untitled (2002, cat. no. 91), for example, uses a shoe warehouse advertisement as its ground, recalling Andy Warhol’s production of shoe advertisements and Jasper Johns’s long commitment both to newspapers as material and to printmaking.

Relevant literature includes Cy Twombly: Making Past Present, ed. Christine Kondeleon and Kate Nesin (2020), which addresses both Six Latin Writers and Poets and Five Greek Poets and a Philosopher. For Natural History, see Cy Twombly: Œuvres sur papier 1973–1977, Musée de Grenoble (2023) and Alissa A. Walls, “Cy Twombly and the Art of Hunting Mushrooms” (2014). For Lepanto, see the eponymous catalogues from Gagosian Gallery (2002) and the Museo del Prado (2003).

(Publication description by Jamie Danis)

Cy Twombly Catalogue Raisonné of the Printed Graphic Work 1953–2002. Edited by Heiner Bastian. Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 2017. Fully illustrated. English edition.