This volume by Thierry Greub includes the following chapters, divided into six sections. Section one, “Bildsprache” (“Imagery”), includes “‘The past is the source’. Cy Twombly in Siegen,” “Cy Twomblys ‘inverted archaeology,’” and “Cy Twomblys ‘excitement.’ Ein zeitgenössisches Konzept des movere.” Section two, “Zeighnungen” (“Drawings”) includes “‘Primordial Freshness.’ Zur Edition von Cy Twomblys Catalogue Raisonné of Drawings” and “Fiebrige Spontaneität. Cy Twombly zeichnet.” Section three, “Inspirationsquellen” (“Sources of Inspiration”) includes “Cy Twombly und die Antike,” “Cy Twomblys Antiken,” and “‘He was a traveler.’ Cy Twomblys ›(fern)östliche‹ Bildästhetik.” Section four, “Einschreibungen” (“Inscriptions”), includes “‘To revalorize poetry now.’ Zu Cy Twomblys literarischen Einschreibungen” and “‘Cantos of Mutability.’ Cy Twomblys Quattro Stagioni.” Section five, “Deutungen” (“Interpretations”), includes “‘Gegenwartsform der Vergangenheit.’ Cy Twomblys Thermopylae,” “Zwischen Vergewaltigung und Verkündigung. Cy Twomblys Plastik Madame d'O und Heinrich von Kleists ‘Die Marquise von O....,’” and “Selbstentzug als Selbstvollzug. Cy Twomblys Selbstbildnisse.” Section six, “Photodrucke” (“Photographic Prints”) includes “Cy Twombly: Photographs 1951–2007,” “‘Unschuld ist weiß.’ Cy Twomblys photographische Kunst,” and “‘Blooming.’ Konvergenzen in Cy Twomblys Malerei und Photographie.” 

Throughout, the volume focuses largely on the iconographic and conceptual referents present throughout Twombly’s practice, seeking to identify appropriate source material which inspired or influenced each artwork. Despite this, Greub seeks to maintain a balance between “the painterly-gestural elements of the image, the drawn scribbles and ciphers on the one hand, and the inclusion of the work titles and the decipherable inscriptions on the other” (Full passage: “Erst der gleichberechtigte Blick auf die malerisch-gestischen Bildelemente, die gezeichneten Kritzel und Chiffren einerseits und die Einbeziehung der Werk-titel und der entzifferbaren Einschreibungen andererseits ergeben ein verlässliches Gesamtbild”) (10).

Scholars interested in this volume will likely also be interested in Greub’s multivolume Inscriptions (2022), which has a similarly comprehensive scope but focuses more on the material covered in section four of the present volume, as well as his edited volume Cy Twombly: Image, Text, Paratext (2014). Scholars may also wish to consult other major catalogues and monographs, such as: Richard Leeman’s Cy Twombly: A Monograph (2005); Mary Jacobus’s Reading Cy Twombly: Poetry in Paint (2016); 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); and Cy Twombly: Making Past Present, eds. Christine Kondoleon and Kate Nesin (2020).

(Publication description by Jamie Danis)

Das ungezähmte Bild. Texte zu Cy Twombly. By Thierry Greub. Published by Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn, 2017. 388 pages, fully illustrated. German edition.