This publication includes a preface from Henri Loyrette, an interview of Twombly by Marie-Laure Bernadac, Richard Leeman’s “L’océan universel des choses (The Universal Ocean of Things”), Guillame Fonkenell’s “La salle haute de l’aile Lescot…” (“The Great Hall in the Lescot Wing”), a biography of the artist to date of publication, a list of exhibitions to date of publication, a bibliography, and a list of acknowledgements. All text is published in both French and English. 

In the interview, Twombly and Bernadac discuss Twombly’s initial reaction to the invitation to paint a ceiling for the Louvre, his conception of the artwork, his attitude towards commissions generally, sources of inspiration, the artist’s travels to Paris throughout his lifetime, his relationship to the past, and his use of poetry. The interview includes Twombly’s oft-cited statement that “The past is a springboard for me. I get the impulse and excitement from the subject of the work. And then painting gives you a rush to do it in the way you do it. Anything interesting has a life of its own, like most aesthetic and creative things. Ancient things are new things. Everything lives in the moment, that’s the only time it can live. But its influence can go on forever” (21) comes from this interview.

Leeman’s essay focuses on critical reception of the artist’s paintings in Europe and the United States. He discusses Twombly’s “abstract writing” (38), asserting that by saying “‘I myself am the form of my painting,’ Twombly tells us with his cyclones” (38). He discusses Twombly’s use of language and poetry, moving chronologically through his practice. Turning to the ceiling, he discusses referents such as Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel and the significance of including names of sculptors on the ceiling. He concludes with reflections on the interface between antiquity and Twombly’s present. Fonkenell situates Twombly’s ceiling relative to its site, considering both the Salle des Bronzes Antiques itself and the Lescot Wing more generally. He offers a detailed history of the Louvre and asserts that the Lescot wing acts as “a synopsis of [the Louvre’s] history” (65).

This is the most extensive volume to date on Twombly’s ceiling. For further discussion of Twombly’s later practice more generally 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); Nela Pavlouskova’s Cy Twombly: The Late Paintings 2003–2011 (2015); 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. The Ceiling. Edited by Marie-Laure Bernadac. Interview with Cy Twombly, Marie-Laure Bernadac. Texts by Richard Leeman, Guillaume Fonkenell. Musée du Louvre editions, Editions du Regard, 2010. 80 pages, 40 illustrations. French/English edition.