This catalogue, published by the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1973, includes two texts in German: Franz Meyer, “Cy Twombly. Zeichnungen 1953–1973” and Heiner Bastian, “ein langer anfang zu den arbeiten von Cy Twombly.” Meyer’s essay frames Twombly’s drawings in relationship to Abstract Expressionism, drawing on statements by various critics, including Frank O’Hara’s famous 1955 quip that “a bird seems to have passed through the impasto with cream colored screams and bitter claw marks” (as cited on 3). He frames Bastian, the other author in the volume, as offering uniquely differentiated insights into Twombly’s practice (“Wirklich neue Ansätze sind erst bei Heiner Bastian zu finden,” 4). He likewise frames the exhibition’s scope as uniquely comprehensive and offers detailed description of Twombly’s working practice from the 1950s through the 1970s. Returning to comparisons to Abstract Expressionism, Meyer frames Twombly’s work as holding “objectivity” (“Objektivität”) in contrast to the earlier movement (5). Moving chronologically through Twombly’s biography and practice, he brings the artist into dialogue with others such as Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, and Leonardo da Vinci. He discusses poets quoted in Twombly’s artworks, such as John Keats, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Sappho. He ends with consideration of the interplay of the erotic, the representational, and the baroque in Twombly’s practice.

Bastian adopts his typical affective stance towards the artist’s practice, foregrounding description and emotion. He also takes a semiotic approach, treating Twombly’s ideograms as a a system of “sign structures” and meaningful symbols. He draws connections to Ezra Pound and John Keats, Bastian asserts that Twombly “answers the question: who is speaking?” (“auf jene Frage: wer spricht?” 19). He links Twombly’s “speech” to Mallarmé’s theoretical frameworks, and closes by asserting that his essay is intended to provide a context for, rather than a detailed analysis of, the artworks in question. 

In addition to reproductions of artworks and photographs, the volume includes a list of exhibitions until 1973, a list of publications and catalogues until 1973, and an exhibition checklist. Note that most photographs are reproduced in black and white. 

For more on the early period of Twombly’s practice, see Richard Leeman’s Cy Twombly: A Monograph (2005), Kate Nesin’s Cy Twombly’s Things (2014), Thierry Greub’s Inscriptions (2022), and Gagosian Gallery’s Cy Twombly: In Beauty it is finished: Drawings 1951–2008 (2018). For more on works from the 1960s, see, e.g., Cy Twombly Gallery, ed. Nicola Del Roscio and Julie Sylvester (2013). For more on the Treatise on the Veil works included in this catalogue, see the dedicated catalogue for Treatise on the Veil published by the Menil Collection, Houston (2019).

(Publication description by Jamie Danis)

Cy Twombly. Zeichnungen 1953–1973. Edited by Heiner Bastian. Published by Propyläen Verlag, Vienna, 1973. 205 pages. Fully illustrated. German edition.