The Gift of Drawing: Cy Twombly
March 27 - August 9, 2026
Menil Drawing Institute, Houston

From the press release

The Menil Collection is pleased to announce The Gift of Drawing: Cy Twombly, on view at the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston (March 27–August 9, 2026).

The presentation features a selection of some thirty works gifted to the museum by the Cy Twombly Foundation that underscores the Menil’s importance as an international destination for the study, presentation, and appreciation of Twombly’s work.

Those highlighted in the exhibition cover three decades of the artist’s activity, from the 1950s to the 1980s, and feature a broad range of materials, from graphite to oil paint; techniques such as drawing and collage; and themes that are fundamental to his entire practice, such as classical antiquity, eroticism, and nature.

The Foundation’s landmark gift in 2025 of 121 of Twombly’s drawings to the Menil vastly expanded the museum’s holdings and transforms its ability to exhibit and study this aspect of the artist’s practice. It celebrates the museum’s nearly two decades of commitment through the Menil Drawing Institute in elevating the visibility of drawing, its centrality in artists’ lives, and its crucial role in modern and contemporary artistic culture.

The works in this show, none of which have ever been exhibited in the United States, include a series of lush and unrestrained landscapes from 1986 that verge on pure abstraction, two untitled works from 1970 that are related to the artist’s “blackboard paintings” on view at the Menil’s Cy Twombly Gallery, and Narcissus, 1975, a collage of paper, with oil, charcoal, and wax crayon on paper inscribed with the title of the work in large capital letters across the bottom.

The Gift of Drawing: Cy Twombly is curated by Edouard Kopp, John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation Chief Curator, Menil Drawing Institute.

For further information:
The Menil Collection, Houston
menil.org