50 Years of Works on Paper. The long-awaited retrospective of the artist's drawings, monotypes and paintings on paper. On the occasion of his 75th birthday the artist (*1928) has decided to collaborate in an authentic exhibition of his works on paper, which, through the decades, have primarily been kept in his own collection.
50 Years of Works on Paperz
The exhibition Cy Twombly - 50 Years of Works on Paper is the long-awaited
retrospective of the artist's drawings, monotypes and paintings on paper. On
the occasion of his 75th birthday the artist (*1928) has decided to
collaborate in an authentic exhibition of his works on paper, which, through
the decades, have primarily been kept in his own collection.
For the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung (Graphic Arts Collection) being able to
host this show in the Pinakothek der Moderne is a very special event. Thanks
to the Brandhorst Collection with its compilation of Twombly works, Munich
will in future be one of the most important centers in Europe for encounters
with the oeuvre of this American artist.
The exhibition will include more than 80 works ranging from the early drawings
of 1953 to the new intensively colorful, large format paintings on paper,
which were executed in Gaeta, Italy. Many of these works have never been
exhibited or published before.
Through the decades the expressive medium of this 'European' American has
spanned a subtle transformational process between drawn painting and painted
drawing. The secret to his work is contained within the potentiality of
symbols and metaphors that are not wholly decipherable.
Rarely does the work of an artist of the second half of the 20th century
combine the finely-wiry seismographic power of the drawn with those kind
poetic allusions. Twombly's works have repeatedly defied rashly derived
generic concepts and interpretations. The unwavering and unconventional course
of this artist reveals itself most intensively in the range of his drawings
and paintings on paper.
Twombly employs in his work a variety of media to achieve his style: collage,
colored plastic pastose surfaces etched with lines, marked poem fragments and
intense colored forms that have direct and universal power.
Cy Twombly was born in 1928 in Lexington, Virginia. Since 1950 he has lived in
Italy, most recently in Rome and Gaeta. At the Biennale 2001 he was awarded
the Lion d'Or for his life's work. In 1994 the Museum of Modern Art in New
York hosted a large retrospective of his paintings. In 2000 the Kunstmuseum
Basel presented a comprehensive show of his sculpture.
In addition, the Cy Twombly Gallery is an integral part of the Menil
Collection, Houston, Texas. The exhibition Cy Twombly - 50 Years of Works on
Paper, which was first shown in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, will be on
view after its Munich showing in Paris' Musée d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou
(Jan. 1 - March 28, 2004) and in the Serpentine Gallery in London (Apr. 13 -
May 23, 2004).
Exhibition curator: Julie Sylvester, Eremitage St. Petersburg.
Opening: Oct. 7, 03 | 7:00 pm
Staatliche Graphische Sammlung
Pinakothek der Moderne
Barer Strasse 29
Munchen
Tel. +49.(0)89.23805-118
Fax +49.(0)89.23805-125