Cy Twombly

note on the reverse: Fereydoun  cy   paris   sept    1992

Gifted by the artist in 1992

This work is in very good condition. The sheet is float mounted to the backing board. There are artist's pinholes to all four corners and to the centre of the lower edge, and all four edges are deckled. The sheet undulates slightly and there is some light discolouration towards the edges. Close inspection reveals some light handling creases and minute and unobtrusive tears along the edges, which are likely to be original.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The best of Cy Twombly’s work cannot be attributed to any singular influence, thought, or emotion. His emphases and inspirations range from the tactile to the ephemeral; from the sounds of the sea and the feel of a flower, to the poetry of forgotten cultures in bygone millennia. The genius of his artistry does not lie in the unstinting focus on any of these sensations, but rather in their synthesis: “Painting is the fusing of ideas, fusing feelings, fusing projected on atmosphere” (Cy Twombly quoted in: Exh. Cat., London, Tate, Cy Twombly: Cycles and Seasons, 2008, p. 24). Twombly’s abstract oeuvre shifted the course of Western art irrevocably. His works are now held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, and the Tate Collection, U.K.; they even adorn the ceiling of the Salle des Bronzes in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. However, he cannot be said to have belonged to any particular national tradition or movement; he found as much inspiration in the most remote Greek islands as in the heart of New York City. Indeed, the present work was created on D’Arros Island in the Seychelles.

Untitled is exceptional within Twombly’s oeuvre; far more rarefied and composed than the majority of his work, and imbued with a pervasive sense of organic extension and growth. Completed in 1992, shortly after Twombly exhibited at the Venice Biennale for the second time, it should be viewed as a pronouncement of this artist’s late style and an artistic premonition of what was still to come. Its use of diffuse sanguine red against a blank background certainly prefigures the feted Bacchus series, now held in the permanent collection of the Tate. Moreover, in the overtly floral appearance of its three linear forms, each appearing to reach upwards on an asinine stalk, it can further be viewed representing a Poppy Flower and an antecedent to the Flower paintings that Twombly completed in the 2000s. However, where in those later works, the flower motifs had bloomed into gargantuan swirls of bleeding colour, laced with a sense of memento mori, in the present work they are delicate and nascent, executed with assured aplomb. Untitled was a gift for the present owner – a close friend of Twombly’s – and has never been seen at auction until now.