Contemporary Art

Cy Twombly: By the Numbers

By Annikka Olsen

Born on April 25, 1928, Twombly lived to be 84 years old.

Twombly moved to Italy in 1957, and lived there for 54 years until his death.

Wed in 1959 to Baroness Tatiana Franchetti, they were married for 52 years.

Artist Cy Twombly wearing a white suit and sitting comfortably in a chair in his art-filled apartment in a palazzo in Rome. His wife Tatiana can be seen in the doorway in the background.
CY TWOMBLY IN HIS APARTMENT IN A PALAZZO IN ROME. HIS WIFE TATIANA CAN BE SEEN IN THE DOORWAY IN THE BACKGROUND. FEATURED IN VOGUE, 1966. Horst P. Horst/Conde Nast via Getty Images

He had 1 son, Cyrus Alessandro Twombly, who is also a painter.

Cy Twombly has had 249 solo exhibitions, at both galleries and museums.

He has work in 71 public collections, both national and international, including the Menil Collection, Houston, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The highest auction price for a work by Cy Twombly was $70.5 million for Untitled (New York City) (1968) at Sotheby’s New York in 2015.

Cy Twombly's Untitled (New York City) (1968) sold for $70.5 million – a record for the artist – at Sotheby’s New York in 2015.

After spending several hours contemplating, it often took the artist only 15 minutes to complete a painting.

He served for 1 year in the United States Army as a cryptographer.

An $1,800 travel grant from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts allows him to travel for the first time to Europe and North Africa.

In 2007, the French courts award him €1 for damages done by a woman kissing, and smearing lipstick on, his all-white canvas work Phaedrus (1977).

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