This exhibition catalogue includes Tacita Dean and Julie Mehretu’s “A Conversation on Cy Twombly,” reproductions of artworks included in the exhibition, and an illustrated list of works. As Dean articulates, the focus of the conversation between the two artists is “Cy in relation to creative process generally.” Dean asserts that “everything he did was about that encounter. And it’s the encounter with the surface, but I also think it’s the encounter with his literary precedents…” She describes watching Twombly work in his studio, and each artist reflects on their own studio practice and relationship to others being present in their studios while painting. After discussing surface and working practice, Mehretu asks, “do you think he was processing something in himself concurrently through those narratives [of classical antiquity and other literary references]?” She goes on to assert that “There’s something about Twombly’s work that doesn’t necessarily feel expressionistic but comes from this place of inner being…The works have this very structured sense…” Dean repeatedly asserts that Twombly was in a “trance” state while painting, and the artists discuss Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red as a correlate to Twombly’s practice. They discuss Fifty Days at Iliam (1978), and they end with reflections on color and sentimentality.

For further discussion of Twombly’s later practice and his related Bacchus paintings, see also: Cy Twombly, published by the Centre Pompidou (2016); Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons, ed. Nicholas Serota (2008); Mary Jacobus, Reading Cy Twombly: Poetry in Paint (2016); Thierry Greub, Inscriptions (2022); Cy Twombly, published by Gagosian Gallery (2016); Dominique Baqué’s Cy Twombly: Sous le signe d’Apollon et de Dionysos (2016); Nela Pavlouskova’s Cy Twombly: The Late Paintings 2003–2011 (2015); and Cy Twombly: Making Past Present, eds. Christine Kondoleon and Kate Nesin (2020). For more on artworks from this period and included in this exhibition, see also Kate Nesin’s Cy Twombly’s Things (2014); Achim Hochdörfer’s Cy Twombly: Das Skulpturale Werk (2001); and Katharina Schmidt’s Cy Twombly: Die Skulptur / The Sculpture (2000). Additional exhibition catalogues concerning Twombly’s sculptural practice include Cy Twombly: Sculpture, published by Gagosian Gallery (2019); Cy Twombly: Sculptures 1992–2005, published by the Alte Pinakothek München and Schirmer/Mosel (2006); and Cy Twombly: Ten Sculptures, published by Gagosian Gallery (1997).

(Publication description by Jamie Danis)

Published in 2023 on the occasion of the exhibition Cy Twombly at Gagosian, Beverly Hills and 980 Madison Avenue, New York.

Cy Twombly. Published by Gagosian, 2023; 132 pages; fully illustrated.