This volume by Nela Pavlouskova includes the following chapters: “Introduction,” “Twombly’s Late Period,” “Dionysian Paintings,” “Twombly’s Flower Garden,” “Lines of Script,” “Ships and the Sea,” and “The Last Shout.” It also includes a selected bibliography and selected exhibitions. The volume is available in both French and English editions.

As Pavlouskova notes, “[t]his book is the first comprehensive study of Cy Twombly’s late works, and covers all the painting cycles exhibited between 2003 and 2011, predominantly at Gagosian Gallery spaces” (7). Her introduction glosses Twombly’s earlier works and argues that “[f]or Cy Twombly, what mattered most was the creative act itself—the moment at which images and internal impulses came together on the canvas” (13). “Twombly’s Late Period” identifies Twombly’s private nature and nostalgia as key features of his later practice, with an extended reading of Untitled (Winter Pictures) (2004). “Dionysian Paintings” draws on Jean-Pierre Vernant and Roland Barthes to explore Twombly’s Bacchus paintings. “Twombly’s Flower Garden” foregrounds inscriptions taken from Rainer Maria Rilke and Japanese haikus to explore Twombly’s later paintings of flowers, especially The Rose (2008). “Lines of Script” focuses on III Notes from Salalah (2003), exploring the question “is it writing, and if so, why is it illegible?” (101). “Ships and the Sea” focuses on Leaving Paphos Ringed with Waves (2009) with reference to Twombly’s Gaeta studios and photographs taken by the artist. “The Last Shout” centers Camino Real (2010) and The Last Paintings (2011), concluding that “despite the glory of the colours and the liveliness of the lines, they still leave the impression of something on the verge of disappearing” (156).

For further discussion of Twombly’s later practice and of related paintings, see also: Cy Twombly, published by the Centre Pompidou (2016); Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons, ed. Nicholas Serota (2008); Mary Jacobus, Reading Cy Twombly: Poetry in Paint (2016); Thierry Greub, Inscriptions (2022); Cy Twombly, published by Gagosian Gallery (2016); Dominique Baqué’s Cy Twombly: Sous le signe d’Apollon et de Dionysos (2016); Cy Twombly: Making Past Present, eds. Christine Kondoleon and Kate Nesin (2020); Camino Real, published by Gagosian (2010); and Cy Twombly: The Natural World, Selected Works, 2000–2007, published by Yale University Press for the Art Institute of Chicago (2009).

(Publication description by Jamie Danis)

Cy Twombly: Late Paintings 2003 – 2011. By Nela Pavlouskova. Published by Thames & Hudson, New York, 2015. 176 pages, 148 color illustrations. English edition.
Originally published as Cy Twombly. Dernières peintures 2003 – 2011 by Editions du Regard, Paris, 2014. 200 pages, 150 illustrations. French edition.