This exhibition catalogue, published by Galerie Karsten Greve in 2013, includes introductory comments by Karsten Greve and an essay by Robert Storr entitled “Styx and Stones (Dello Stie e di silice),” each printed in Italian and English. An edition with texts in German and French is also available. This is followed by an appendix that includes a list of illustrated works, biography, list of exhibitions with Galerie Karsten Greve, list of exhibitions, bibliography, list of public collections with holdings of Twombly’s work, and list of publications by Galerie Kasten Greve. The catalogue was published in an edition of 1500 copies.

Greve’s brief remarks reflect on Twombly’s paintings from Bolsena, as well as his own experiences in Bolsena with Twombly, Giorgio Franchetti, and Plinio De Martiis. He describes Twombly’s “impressive understanding for landscape, architecture, nature, philosophy and their pictorial rendition” (7). 

Storr’s essay opens with reflections on the proximity of the exhibition to the artist’s death in 2011, arguing that viewing the artist’s “whole…accomplishment through the lens of loss” is inhibited by the artist’s status as “a peculiarly twentieth century transplant” (14). He contextualizes Twombly’s practice both relative to his early travels in Italy in the 1950s and relative to Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Storr tracks Twombly’s practice through the “orgy of erotic free association” (16) of his 1960s paintings and the “tide of corporeal fragmentation with its flotsam and jetsam of members and orifices” in his 1970s paintings, with particular attention to Venus and Adonis (1978). He discusses both Italian contemporary artists and American Minimalist artists, underlining Twombly’s independence from each. He closes with consideration of Silex Scintillans (1981–82), connecting it to Henry Vaughan’s poetry. Storr concludes that “there is nothing to regret in his art, which continues to shiver with impetuosity and invention for which we must be grateful” (19).

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: Fifty Years of Works on Paper, published by the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (2015), and major monographs on Twombly’s practice that discuss works on paper, such as Richard Leeman’s Cy Twombly: A Monograph (2005). 

(Publication description by Jamie Danis)

Published on the occasion of the exhibition Cy Twombly. Work on Paper at Galerie Karsten Greve St. Moritz (October 12–December 21, 2013).

Cy Twombly. Work on Paper. Catalogue VI. Texts by Karsten Greve, Robert Storr. Published by Galerie Karsten Greve, 2013. 140 pages. English/Italian and German/French editions.