A definitive Cy Twombly retrospective reasserts his status as a modern master

In the autumn of 1963, John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. His wife, Jackie Kennedy, was wearing a strawberry pink suit at the time. She famously insisted on wearing it – still stained with his blood – during the swearing-in of Lyndon B Johnson and for the flight back to Washington DC with the president’s body.
It was this pivotal event – and sartorial detail – that the late American painter Cy Twombly devoted a cycle of paintings to immediately after. The 1963 series Nine Discourses on Commodus would go on show the following spring at Leo Castelli’s gallery in New York. As the story goes, Twombly didn’t travel with the works and they were installed without him in the wrong order. Critics vehemently derided the exhibition. Donald Judd wrote a ‘killer review’; others proclaimed they were ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘too European’.
‘Volubilis’, 1953.
Now, these remarkable works are on display at the Centre Pompidou as part of a definitive retrospective opened in Paris, the first since the artist’s death in 2011. Centred on three major cycles – the aforementioned Nine Discourses on Commodus; Fifty Days at Iliam (1978); and Coronation of Sesostris (2000) – the survey spans Twombly’s 60-year career through some 140 paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures mapped out chronologically.
Born in 1928 in Lexington, Virginia, Edwin Parker Twombly adopted his father’s nickname, ‘Cy’ (after the baseball player Cyclone Young). His affinity for art formed early on, nourished by the guidance of the Spanish artist Pierre Daura. By 1950, Twombly found himself studying in New York, where he would meet artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns; the trio would forge a deep, lifelong friendship, influencing each other’s artistic practices. (In serendipitous symmetry, Rauschenberg is also the current subject of a major retrospective at Tate Modern in London).
‘Blooming’, 2001–2008.
The show opens with a painting exhibited at Twombly’s first solo exhibition at Stable Gallery in New York in 1955. It’s a work that the artist kept all his life, ‘unique’ in its semi-figurative nature. Among the graffiti-like scrawls, an eye stares down visitors at the entrance. As curator Jonas Storsve explains, ‘The visitor watches the painting, at the same time the painting looks back.’
It’s a sentiment that carries throughout the show. Personal anecdotes of love, sex and death pervade Twombly’s works, but the cryptic artist always deftly deflects, citing various real-world events or Greco-Roman influences.
The retrospective closes with works produced at the end of Twombly’s career, in his studio in Gaeta. © Centre Pompidou.
Twombly’s artistic transformation is explored in earnest at the Centre Pompidou. Along the way, visitors also get a glimpse into other lesser-known facets of his practice – an array of his sculptures perfectly punctuate the exhibition halfway through, while his Polaroids are a revelation. (The enigmatic Twombly photographed quite extensively throughout his career, but only first revealed these images in the 1990s.)
In 2005, at the height of the Iraq War, Twombly embarked on an epic series of paintings in his Gaeta studio. Returning to the characteristic writing he had explored in the Black Paintings of the late 1960s, the Bacchus series serves as the show-stopping finale; potent, swirling canvases of blood-red paint allude to wine and death at once. Twombly’s evolution is complete.
‘Sans titre (A Gathering of Time)’, 2003.
The Centre Pompidou retrospective – comprehensive, but arguably incomplete – does an immense service to Twombly’s oeuvre, unfurling the complexities of an artist oft maligned in his time, but certainly not now.
The major survey spans Twombly’s 60-year career through some 140 paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures mapped out chronologically. Pictured, Untitled (Lexington), 1951.
Still Life, Black Mountain College, 1951.
Untitled (Grottaferrata), 1957.
Sperlong Collage, 1959.
The fourth room of the exhibition is dedicated to works the artist produced in Rome between 1960 and 1962, following his marriage to Italian aristocrat Luisa Tatiana Franchetti. Twombly produced some of his most sexual paintings during this period. © Centre Pompidou.
Dutch Interior, 1962.
In late 1963, following John F Kennedy’s assassination, Twombly devoted a cycle of nine paintings to the Roman emperor Commodus (161–192), son of Marcus Aurelius and remembered as a cruel and bloodthirsty ruler
The Paris exhibition was organised with the support of the artist’s son, Alessandro Twombly – the show includes this 1965 portrait of him as a child.
Night Watch, 1966. , Inc; and Cheim & Read
Visitors also get a glimpse into other lesser-known facets of Twombly’s practice – an array of his sculptures perfectly punctuate the exhibition halfway through. © Centre Pompidou.
In 1975, Twombly bought a 16th-century house at Bassano in Teverina, north of Rome, establishing his summer studio there. Inspired by Homer’s Iliad, read in Alexander Pope’s 18th-century English translation, he embarked in 1977 on the major cycle Fifty Days at Iliam, the ten paintings in which were completed over two successive summers. © Centre Pompidou.
Fifty Days at Iliam Shades of Achilles, Patroclus and Hector, 1978.
Wilder Shores of Love, 1985.
Summer Madness, 1990.
A selection of Twombly’s Polaroids are also on show as part of the survey.© Centre Pompidou
These images recall the work of the Italian painter Giorgio Morandi. Pictured, Lemons, 1998.
Coronation of Sesostris is one of the major painting cycles that punctuated Twombly’s career, differing from the purely abstract series in its incorporation of narrative elements. © Centre Pompidou.
The cycle is inspired by the god Râ, whose two sun-boats traversed the heavens both day and night. © Centre Pompidou.
For the Bacchus series, painted at Twombly’s Gaeta studio in early 2005, the artist again remembered Homer’s Iliad and returned to the writing he had explored in the Black Paintings of the late 1960s. Pictured, Untitled (Bacchus), 2005.
Here, he replaced the white wax crayon with red paint evocative of both blood and wine, allowed to run freely across the vast canvases. © Centre Pompidou.
INFORMATION
‘Cy Twombly’ is on view until 24 April. For more information, visit the Centre Pompidou website
ADDRESS
Centre Pompidou
Place Georges-Pompidou
75004 Paris
-
Last chance to see: Sharjah Biennial 15, ‘Thinking Historically in the Present’
Built on the vision of late curator Okwui Enwezor, the Sharjah Biennial 15: ‘Thinking Historically in the Present’ offers a critical reframing of postcolonial narratives through major new commissions
By Amah-Rose Abrams • Published
-
For London Gallery Weekend 2023, the mood is hardcore
With London Gallery Weekend 2023 almost upon us (2 – 4 June), here’s our list of must-see art exhibitions
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Birkenstock celebrates its most memorable styles with colourful capsule (and matching socks)
Birkenstock marks the 40th, 50th and 60th anniversaries of the Gizeh, Arizona and Madrid sandals, respectively, with limited-edition versions
By Jack Moss • Published
-
The best London art exhibitions: a guide for this weekend
Your guide to the best London art exhibitions this weekend, as chosen by the Wallpaper* arts desk
By Harriet Lloyd Smith • Published
-
All eyes on Christina Quarles, the painter inventing a new figurative language
Los Angeles-based artist Christina Quarles is in her element, with two major solo shows underway at Hamburger Bahnhof and Hauser & Wirth Menorca
By Emily McDermott • Published
-
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol’s fruitful partnership is the focus of a major new Paris exhibition
Fondation Louis Vuitton presents ‘Basquiat x Warhol. Painting 4 Hands’, exploring the collaboration between the two artists
By Hannah Silver • Published
-
Portraits of dogs: new Wallace Collection show is pooch perfect
‘Portraits of Dogs from Gainsborough to Hockney’ at the Wallace Collection (until 15 October) offers paws for thought on the human devotion to dogs throughout the centuries
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Paris art exhibitions: a guide to exhibitions this weekend
As Emily in Paris fever puts the city of love at the centre of the cultural map, stay-up-to-date with our guide to the best Paris art exhibitions
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Cyprien Gaillard on chaos, reorder and excavating a Paris in flux
We interviewed French artist Cyprien Gaillard ahead of his major two-part show, ‘Humpty \ Dumpty’ at Palais de Tokyo and Lafayette Anticipations (until 8 January 2023). Through abandoned clocks, love locks and asbestos, he dissects the human obsession with structural restoration
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Gavin Turk: ‘My art is always other people's art’
We interview British artist Gavin Turk, whose show ‘Kerze’ (candle) at Ben Brown Fine Arts is an ode to Gerhard Richter’s candle painting, with an uncanny twist
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
An art history of Château Mouton Rothschild wine labels, from Lucian Freud and Niki de Saint Phalle to Peter Doig
We take a closer look at Château Mouton Rothschild’s 2020 vintage label designed by artist Peter Doig and look back on the house’s fruitful history of artist collaborations
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Last updated