Published in 2014 on the occasion of Cy Twombly’s retrospective held at Museo Jumex in Mexico City, the catalogue was edited by Julie Sylvester.
The exhibition catalogue, Cy Twombly. Paradise, features texts including a foreword by Eugenio López Alonso, preface by Patrick Charpenel, and essay by Philip Larratt-Smith, “Psychedelic Antiquity.” The plates and the checklist of the works focus on a selection of early and late drawings, paintings and sculptures, some of which belong to the Collection Jumex. The list of lenders to the exhibition, the artist’s biographical notes and one-person exhibitions list, as well as the acknowledgments, conclude the catalogue.
In the essay “Psychedelic Antiquity,” Philip Larratt-Smith attempts to outline an exegesis of Twombly’s artist figures in the context of the Abstract Expressionism, exploiting the dichotomy between Twombly's art and that of Antonin Artaud, Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois and Joseph Beuys to highlight, in each case, a different intellectual, iconographic and artistic shade that, together, give life to Cy Twombly's eclectic artistic universe.
The author observes: “Twombly possessed an extraordinary visual intelligence and an acute sensitivity to all forms of beauty—physical, natural, artistic—responding not only to painting and poetry but to the sea, the light of Italy, architecture, and street life. From his work it is clear that Twombly sublimated his art and life into an aesthetic existence; that he was intoxicated with the past (Greek and Roman history and mythology, Egyptian art, primitive sculpture), though equally attuned to the present; that he felt elective affinities with Rilke, Goethe, Eliot, and other poets; and that he had a love for beautiful surfaces and a taste for decrepit splendor. But he never fully explained why he was drawn to these things, nor elucidated the role they played in his consciousness. The high degree of abstraction in his work only serves to render its origins even more inaccessible and enigmatic.”
Cy Twombly. Paradise (Italian Edition)
Published by Damiani Editore on the occasion of the Italian retrospective, Cy Twombly. Paradise, held at Ca’ Pesaro, Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna in 2015. The exhibition catalogue is the Italian edition of the volume Cy Twombly. Paradise, published by Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo in 2014 on the occasion of the same titled exhibition at Museo Jumex, in Mexico City.
The catalogue features the essay by Philip Larratt-Smith, “Psychedelic Antiquity,” and the foreword by Walter Hartsarich and Gabriella Belli, who emphasise how this exhibition brings together works from the early 1950s to 2011, collecting sixty years of Cy Twombly’s artistic activity (1951-2011). Similarly, Philip Larratt-Smith focuses his contribution on the vastness of Twombly's work, analysing and contemplating the visual and poetic image that characterised his long artistic career.
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Cy Twombly. Paradise at Museo Jumex, Mexico City (June 5 – October 12, 2014).
Cy Twombly. Paradise. Edited by Julie Sylvester. Text by Philip Larratt-Smith. Mexico City: Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, 2014. English edition.