This volume, originally published in French as Cy Twombly: peindre, dessiner, écrire, offers a comprehensive overview of Twombly’s practice until the date of publication (2004). Leeman weaves together relevant historiographical and biographical information with discussion of individual artworks, proceeding in chronological order through Twombly’s oeuvre. He offers extended readings of artworks such as Achilles Mourning the Death of Patroclus (1962)—for which he offers contextualizing referents such as translations of the Iliad prepared by Alexander Pope and Gavin Hamilton respectively—and Virgil (1973). He takes up the role of writing, language, and signatures in Twombly’s practice at length and consistently draws connections to major art historical figures with whom Twombly shared affinities or whom Twombly was directly invoking. These figures range from Rene Magritte to Raphael to Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Likewise, he surfaces major literary and philosophical references for Twombly, including T.S. Eliot, Plato, and Richard Burton. Salient formal qualities such as color and line are systematically explored throughout. Leeman elucidates the melancholy and memorial associations of Twombly’s later paintings, considering Untitled (Say Goodbye, Catullus, to the Shores of Asia Minor (1994) at particular length. Concluding with reflections on the power and significance of naming, Leeman writes, “From Cyrus to Alexander, from the scribble to the whirlwind, from the jewel in the lotus to the red stain of lost love, Twombly's oeuvre repeats, in a neverending anabasis, the law of language, incarnate in the father's name: there are no words to say the thing one longs for, because it is lost” (294).

Scholars interested in this volume may also consult Richard Leeman’s more recent and more narrowly focused book, Cy Twombly et la critique américaine 1951–1995 (2022); an English translation of this text is also available via Gagosian Gallery. Scholars may also wish to consult other major catalogues and monographs, such as: Mary Jacobus’s Reading Cy Twombly: Poetry in Paint (2016); Thierry Greub, Inscriptions (2022); Cy Twombly: A Retrospective, ed. Kirk Varnedoe (1994); Cy Twombly: Œuvres sur papier 1973–1977, Musée de Grenoble (2023); Twombly and Poussin: Arcadian Painters, ed. Nicholas Cullinan (2011); Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons, ed. Nicholas Serota (2008); and Cy Twombly: Making Past Present, eds. Christine Kondoleon and Kate Nesin (2020).

(Publication description by Jamie Danis)

Cy Twombly, A Monograph. By Richard Leeman. Published by Thames & Hudson, London and Flammarion, Paris, 2004. 364 illustrations, 344 in color. English edition.

Originally published in French, Éditions du Regard, Paris, 2004.