N08792

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Lot 111
  • 111

Cy Twombly

Estimate
250,000 - 350,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Cy Twombly
  • Landscape
  • signed, titled and dated 1952 on the reverse
  • oil based house paint, oil and paper collage on wooden panel
  • 11 1/8 by 21 in. 28.3 by 53.3 cm.
  • Executed in 1951.

Provenance

Lou Harrison
Christie's, New York, May 9, 1984, lot 112
Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York
Karsten Greve, Cologne
Sotheby's, New York, May 3, 1989, lot 131
PaineWebber Group Inc., New York (acquired from the above sale)
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Exhibited

New York, Hirschl & Adler Modern, Cy Twombly. Paintings and Drawings: 1952-1984, 1984, cat. no. 1, n.p., illustrated
Houston, Museum of Fine Arts; The Detroit Institute of Art; Boston, The Museum of Fine Arts; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; San Diego Museum of Art; Miami Center for the Arts, Art Works: The PaineWebber Collection of Contemporary Masters, July 1995 - June 1997

Literature

Heiner Bastian, Cy Twombly: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume I, 1948 - 1960, Munich, 1992, cat. no. 5, p. 40, illustrated

Condition

This work is in good condition overall. Please refer to the following condition report prepared by Simon Parkes Art Conservation. This work is framed under Plexiglas.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Born Edwin Parker Twombly, Jr. in 1928, "Cy" Twombly was member of a generation of artists, including Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, who had absorbed the lessons of Abstract Expressionism and were able to see beyond its limitations to new artistic modes of production. Landscape (1952) is a rare early work that evinces Twombly's mastery of Abstract Expressionism's conceptual model and from which he would develop his own humanist project.

In 1951, based on the recommendation of his friend Rauschenberg, Twombly studied at Black Mountain College in North Carolina under instructors that included Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline. Shortly thereafter, he traveled to Morocco and produced a number of drawings that would serve as the basis for a new series of paintings.  The paintings synthesized these two experiences, his impressions of North Africa and the lessons learned from Motherwell and Kline. In Landscape, Kline's influence is most obvious in the array of perpendicular black bars painted within white expanses, and the painterly treatment across the canvas. In his later produced North African Sketchbook, Twombly would list colors that he associated with the region and comprise Landscape's palette, "brown ... black brown, orange, faded sienna, chalk white."

It was unlikely that Twombly intended Landscape to be a direct depiction of Morocco, or to contain North African stylistic elements. It is more accurately described as the trace memory of Twombly's experience projected on canvas. For the Abstract Expressionist movement, the canvas served as a mirror for the expressive moment as it was being experienced. Painted after his trip to Northern Africa, Twombly's Landscape records the experiential residue of a previous time. As a result, like Rauschenberg's work at the time, Landscape serves to mark the beginning of the transition away from the tenets of Abstract Expressionism.