This catalogue was published by the Städtisches Kunstmuseum Bonn, in collaboration with the Centre Cultural de la Fundació de Pensions, Barcelona, in 1987. It includes Katharina Schmidt’s “Zur Ausstellung,” Gottfried Boehm’s “Erinnern, Vergessen. Cy Twombly’s ‘Arbeiten auf Papier,’” a list of exhibitions, a selected bibliography, and an illustrated list of works exhibited. There is also an English-language edition of this exhibition catalogue published by the Centre Cultural de la Fundació de Pensions. 

Schmidt’s brief entry focuses on the locations in which Twombly completed the drawings in the exhibition, including Gaeta, Captiva Island, and Mykonos, among others, and includes discussion of works such as Poems to the Sea (1959) and The Shepheardes Calender (1977). Boehm’s essay includes discussion of Twombly’s Natural History, Part I, Mushrooms (1974), Delian Odes (1961), Souvenir de l’Île des Saintes (1979), and Hero and Leandro (1981/1984). He addresses difficulties in classifying Twombly’s artworks, the relationship between iconography and form, and the possibilities and pitfalls of attempting to “read” Twombly’s artworks. (Scholars may wish to note that the latter topic is taken up at length in Mary Jacobus’s Reading Cy Twombly: Poetry in Paint [2016].) Identifying works on paper as Twombly’s primary preoccupation, Boehm frames the works as anti-illusionistic and thoroughly erotic. He rejects associations between Twombly’s practice and those of his Abstract Expressionist predecessors, identifying instead a tension maintained between subjectivity and objectivity in his practice. For Boehm, the total effect of Twombly’s works on paper is that of a kind of inner vision.

Those researching Twombly’s works on paper may also consult: Cy Twombly: Fifty Years of Works on Paper (2005) in either the Hermitage or Serpentine editions; Cy Twombly: Works on Paper, published by Galerie Karsten Greve (2013); Cy Twombly: Fifty Years of Works on Paper, published by the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (2015); Cy Twombly: Arbeitein auf Papier, published by Galerie Karsten Greve (1982); Cy Twombly: Œuvres sur papier 1973–1977, Musée de Grenoble (2023); and major monographs on Twombly’s practice that discuss works on paper, such as Richard Leeman’s Cy Twombly: A Monograph (2005) and Cy Twombly: Making Past Present, eds. Christine Kondoleon and Kate Nesin (2020). 

(Publication description by Jamie Danis)

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Cy Twombly. Serien auf papier 1957–1987 held at the Städtisches Kunstmuseum Bonn from June 2 until August 9, 1987, then traveled to Centre Cultural de la Fundació Caixa de Pensions: Cy Twombly. Series sobre paper 1959–1987 from November 30 until January 17, 1988.

Cy Twombly. Serien auf papier 1957–1987. Essays by Katharina Schmidt, Boehm Gottfried. Published by Städtisches Kunstmuseum, Bonn. German edition.

Cy Twombly. Series sobre paper 1959–1987. Published by Centre Cultural de la Fundació de Pensions, Barcelona (1987). 182 pages. Fully illustrated. English/Spanish edition.