This catalogue includes a conversation between Nicola Del Roscio, Nicholas Serota, and Mark Francis, an illustrated list of works exhibited, and installation views of the exhibition.
In their conversation, Del Roscio, Serota, and Francis begin with Twombly’s earliest sculptures and the significance of his use of white paint, which Del Roscio attributes to Paul Valéry and Stéphane Mallarmé, specifically his “Sea Breeze (The Graveyard by the Sea).” Del Roscio describes how he and Twombly’s friends in Virginia would bring found objects to the artist for possible inclusion in sculptures, as well as the artist’s long periods of contemplation. Del Roscio also offers a detailed account of traveling with Twombly in Afghanistan, which he suggests significantly influenced subsequent sculptures. Mark Francis recalls a discussion with the artist and Benjamin Buchloh in which the artist confirmed that he visited an exhibition of Barnett Newman’s artwork at Betty Parsons Gallery in 1951, saying “Of course I [saw it], I saw everything.” They also cover other major influences such as Alberto Giacometti, Joseph Cornell, and American folk art and detail the process through which and locations in which Twombly cast bronzes.
For further discussion of Twombly’s sculptures, see especially 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: Eight Sculptures, published by Gagosian Gallery (2009), 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 2019 on the occasion of the exhibition Cy Twombly: Sculpture at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London (September 30 – December 21, 2019).
Cy Twombly: Sculpture. With a conversation between Nicola Del Roscio, Mark Francis, and Nicholas Serota. Published by Gagosian, 2019; 160 pages; fully illustrated. English.