The Centre Pompidou is presenting a major retrospective of the work of American artist Cy Twombly. A key event of the fall 2016, this exceptionally vast exhibition will only be shown in Paris, and will feature remarkable loans from private and public collections from all over the world.
Organized around three major cycles – Nine Discourses on Commodus (1963), Fifty Days at Iliam (1978) and Coronation of Sesostris (2000) – this retrospective covers the artist’s entire career in a chronological circuit of some 140 paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs, providing a clear picture of an extraordinarily rich body of work which is both intellectual and sensual. The selection includes many of Twombly’s iconic works, several of them never previously exhibited in France.
Born in 1928 in Lexington, Virginia, Cy Twombly died in 2011 at the age of 83 in Rome, where he spent a large part of his life. Unanimously acclaimed as one of the greatest painters of the second half of the 20th century, Twombly, who began dividing his life between Italy and America in the late Fifties, merged the legacy of American abstract expressionism with the origins of Mediterranean culture. From his first works in the early Fifties (marked by the so-called primitive arts, graffiti and writing) to his last paintings with their exuberant colour schemes, by way of the highly carnal compositions of the early Sixties and his response to minimalist and conceptual art during the Seventies, this retrospective emphasises the importance of cycles and series for Twombly, in which he reinvented great history painting. The exhibition is also the occasion to highlight the artist’s close relationship with Paris. The Centre Pompidou had devoted a first substantial retrospective to him as early as 1988.
The exhibition is organized in close collaboration with the Cy Twombly Foundation and its president, Nicola Del Roscio, and the Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio in Gaeta, with the support of the artist’s son, Alessandro Twombly.
Centre Pompidou (press release)

Oil-based house paint on canvas, 101,6 x 121,9 cm
Cy Twombly Foundation © Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy Archives Nicola Del Roscio.

White lead pencil, oil-based house paint, wax crayon on canvas, 139,7 x 193 cm
Cy Twombly Foundation, on deposit at the Menil Collection, Houston © The Menil Collection © Photo Hickey-Robertson, Houston

Pieces of semi-transparent cristal paper, oil-based house paint on paper, 85 x 62 cm
Cy Twombly Foundation © Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy Archives Nicola Del Roscio © Photo : Mimmo Capone

Oil, oil-based house paint, coloured pencil and lead pencil on canvas, 190,3 x 200,5 cm
Private Collection © Robert Bayer, Bildpunkt AG, Munchenstein.

Wax crayon, lead pencil, oil on canvas, 265 x 300 cm
Cy Twombly Foundation © Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy Archives Nicola Del Roscio

259 x 302 cm, Oil, lead pencil on canvas
Collection Centre Pompidou, Paris © Centre Pompidou / P.Migeat / Dist. RMN-GP

Oil, lead pencil on canvas 300 x 175 cm
Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich © Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich

Guggenheim Bilbao Museo, Bilbao © Cy Twombly Foundation, Rome © FMGB Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa, 2016

Oil-based house paint, wax crayon on canvas 190 x 200 cm
Private Collection, Courtesy Jeffrey Hoffeld Fine Arts, Inc. © Courtesy Cheim & Read

Oil pastel and lead pencil on paper, 150 x 134 cm
Cy Twombly Foundation © Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy Archives Nicola Del Roscio © Photo : Mimmo Capone

Oil Pastel, lead pencil and collage on paper, 150 x 137 cm
Cy Twombly Foundation © Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy Archives Nicola Del Roscio © Photo : Mimmo Capone

Part VI : Oil, Oil Pencil, lead pencil on canvas, 299,7 x 491,5 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphie, gift (by exchange) of Samuel S.White 3rd and Vera White, 1989-90-6 © Courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphie

Oil, acrylic on wooden panel, 181,7 x 181,7 cm
Cy Twombly Foundation © Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy. Archives Nicola Del Roscio

Oil-based house paint , oil (oil paint stick), coloured pencil, lead pencil on wooden panel, 140 x 120 cm
Private Collection © Robert Bayer, Bildpunkt AG, Munchenstein

Acrylic, oil, coloured pencil, lead pencil on paper mounted on wooden panels, 150 x 126 cm
Udo and Anette Brandhorst Collection © BKP, Berlin. RMN-Grand Palais / Image BStGS

Part VI : Acrylic, paint stick, wax crayon, lead pencil on canvas, 203,7 x 155,6 cm
Pinault Collection © Pinault Collection / Photo Robert Mc Keever

Acrylic, wax crayon on 10 wooden panels, 250 x 500
Private collection © Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy Archives Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio © Photo: Studio Silvano, Gaeta

Acrylic on canvas, 215,9 x 267,3 cm
Udo and Anette Brandhorst Collection © BKP, Berlin. RMN-Grand Palais / Image BStGS

Acrylic on canvas , 317,5 x 417,8 cm
Udo and Anette Brandhorst Collection © BKP, Berlin. RMN-Grand Palais / Image BStGS

Wood, screw, paint, coloured pencil on paper 53,5 x 105 x 51 cm
Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich © Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich

Wood , screw, rope, scakcloth, plaster, synthetic resin paint, 206,5 x 44,5 x 45 cm
Cy Twombly Foundation © Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy Sammlung Udo and Anette Brandhorst © Photo : Jochen Littkemann

Dry print on cardboard 43,2 x 28 cm
Cy Twombly Foundation © Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy Archives Nicola Del Roscio