Cy Twombly
dal 13/4/2012 al 29/3/2013
Segnalato da
13/4/2012
Cy Twombly
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Sculptures. The violence of Twombly's sculptures is countered by their pale, irregular surfaces, which seem weathered and washed, as if they have long confronted the elements. Yet the focus of these works is not just one war in particular, but any war - as they seem to powerfully embody the impulse to overcome, obliterate, and cancel.
Curator: Carlos Basualdo, The Keith L. and Katherine Sachs Curator of Contemporary Art
Taking cues from the Dada movement and from the work of Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti, Cy Twombly (American, 1928– 2011) created poetic objects whose serene white surfaces and allusive forms seem to recall remote worlds of myth and the ancient past. After reaching an indisputable maturity in his early sculpture, created from 1946 to 1959, Twombly returned to working in three dimensions in the mid-1970s and continued to cast new works up until his passing in 2011. When asked shortly before his death whether any of his sculptures might be considered companions to his masterful series of ten paintings Fifty Days at Iliam of 1978 (installed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1989), the artist responded by choosing these six extraordinary bronzes for this installation.
Like Fifty Days at Iliam (on view in galleries 184 and 185 in the main building), which takes as its subject the Trojan War of Homer’s Iliad, the sculptures that Twombly selected for this installation also refer to the circumstances of an ancient fight. They evoke chariots, sitting still or ferociously charging; the rising sun before the conflict; and the sunset, which falls equally on the victorious and the defeated. Their varied forms seem to combine the triangular shapes of the simplified chariots of the Trojan warriors and the phallic thrust of Achilles in Fifty Days at Iliam paintings. The violence of Twombly’s sculptures is countered by their pale, irregular surfaces, which seem weathered and washed, as if they have long confronted the elements. Yet the focus of these sculptures is not just one war in particular, but any war— as they seem to powerfully embody the impulse to overcome, obliterate, and cancel.
Sponsors
The installation is made possible thanks to the generosity of Jill and Sheldon Bonovitz, Mickey Cartin, Isabel and Agustín Coppel, Daniel W. Dietrich II, Jaimie and David Field, Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman, Kimberley Gray, Marjorie and Jeffrey Honickman, Susan and Kenneth Kaiserman, Jane and Leonard Korman, Mr. and Mrs. Keith L. Sachs, and Dr. Sankey V. Williams and Constance H. Williams.
Sculptures courtesy of the Cy Twombly Foundation
Image: Victory; conceived 1987, cast 2005; © Cy Twombly Foundation
Press Room
Kristina Garcia Wade by phone at (215) 684-7860, by fax at (215) 235-0050, or by e-mail at pressroom@philamuseum.org
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street Philadelphia
Hours:
The Museum will be open on Monday, January 21, 2013, from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. Day of Service activities will run from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, with a book reading at 11:30 am.
Access for two consecutive days to main Museum building, Perelman Building, Rodin Museum, and Historic House Mount Pleasant.
Adults: $20
Seniors (65 & over): $18
Students (with valid ID): $14
Youth (13–18): $14
Children (12 & under): Free