- 188
Cy Twombly
Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 USD
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Description
- Cy Twombly
- Sesostris II
- signed, titled and dated Roma May 74 on the reverse
- gouache and crayon on paper
- 27 1/2 by 39 1/2 in. 69.9 by 100.3 cm.
Provenance
Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London
Private Collection, Chicago
Anthony Grant, Inc., New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2005
Private Collection, Chicago
Anthony Grant, Inc., New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2005
Literature
Yvon Lambert, Cy Twombly: Catalogue Raisonné des Oeuvres sur Papier, Volume VI, 1973-1976, Milan, 1979, cat. no. 100, p. 108, illustrated
Condition
This work is in good condition overall. There is some light wear and handling to the sheet, resulting in some light surface abrasions and some very minor pinpoint accretions visible under close inspection. There is a 4 1/4 inch repaired tear along the left edge of the sheet, 9 inches from the bottom. Under close inspection, it appears the paper has creased slightly in the center, 7 1/2 inches from the bottom, creating some very fine and stable hairline craquelure. The sheet is hinged verso to the matte. 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.
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
Executed almost two decades after first moving to Rome, Cy Twombly's Sesostris II, a minimal gouache from 1974, presents the sensibility the artist learned abroad, as fresh as if it were executed a decade and a half prior. Originally from rural Virginia, Twombly was always soothed and inspired by his natural surroundings. The rolling hills and sparkling sea, paired with Italy's ancient culture influenced Twombly to pattern his painterly motifs after those mythologized vistas and age old-old ruins. "Painting," wrote Twombly, "is the fusing of ideas, fusing of feelings, fusing projected on atmosphere," (Exh. Cat., London, The Tate Gallery, Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons, 2008, p. 24).
Sesostris II confers, in the simplest possible visual terms, his devotion to an organic idiom. The single blue leaf, seemingly swept into the bottom corner of the work by Twombly's brush, is suspended beneath a gauzy layer of white paint. The rest of the composition is bare, though not without treatment. Faint horizontal lines and a thin impasto mirror his famous autographic gestures—the illegible calligraphic marks for which he his known. Twombly's entire oeuvre is one of a reduced palette; he strips his craft down to its essence, illuminating the medium itself and often forcing the paint to be its own subject.
Twombly's mid-career surfaces are primed with less and lighter paint. Sesostris II highlights his ethereal sense of composition and the lyrical quality with which he arranges even the scarcest of imagery. Fellow painter Robert Motherwell recognized that Twombly's singular gift was, "his native temperamental affinity with the abandon, the brutality, the irrational in avant-garde painting of the moment. His painting process ... is orgiastic...yet the art in his painting is rational, often surprisingly simply symmetrical, and invariably harmonious" (Exh. Cat., New York, Sperone Westwater, Cy Twombly: Paintings and Sculptures 1951-1953, 1989, n.p.).
Sesostris II confers, in the simplest possible visual terms, his devotion to an organic idiom. The single blue leaf, seemingly swept into the bottom corner of the work by Twombly's brush, is suspended beneath a gauzy layer of white paint. The rest of the composition is bare, though not without treatment. Faint horizontal lines and a thin impasto mirror his famous autographic gestures—the illegible calligraphic marks for which he his known. Twombly's entire oeuvre is one of a reduced palette; he strips his craft down to its essence, illuminating the medium itself and often forcing the paint to be its own subject.
Twombly's mid-career surfaces are primed with less and lighter paint. Sesostris II highlights his ethereal sense of composition and the lyrical quality with which he arranges even the scarcest of imagery. Fellow painter Robert Motherwell recognized that Twombly's singular gift was, "his native temperamental affinity with the abandon, the brutality, the irrational in avant-garde painting of the moment. His painting process ... is orgiastic...yet the art in his painting is rational, often surprisingly simply symmetrical, and invariably harmonious" (Exh. Cat., New York, Sperone Westwater, Cy Twombly: Paintings and Sculptures 1951-1953, 1989, n.p.).