Cy Twombly

Galleria La Tartaruga, Rome
Harold Diamond, New York (acquired from the above by 1977)
Acquavella Galleries, New York
The Lone Star Foundation, Inc., New York (acquired from the above in January 1978)
Dia Art Foundation (acquired from the above in August 1980)
Sotheby's, New York, 14 November 2013, Lot 181 (consigned by the above)
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

Nicola Del Roscio, Cy Twombly Drawings, Catalogue Raisonné Volume 2: 1956-1960, Munich 2012, cat. no. 206, p. 248, illustrated in color
Mary Jacobus, Reading Cy Twombly: Poetry in Paint, Princeton 2016, fig. 7.3, p. 190, illustrated (detail)

This work is in very good condition overall. There is evidence of light handling to the edges of the sheet as the bottom left and upper right corners are lightly creased and all four corners are slightly dog-eared. There are scattered graphite smudges that appear to be by the artist’s hand and inherent to the artist’s working method. The sheet is hinged verso to the matte intermittently along the top and lateral edges. 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.

Among other doodles and pictographs (flowers, mists, clouds, and mountains), Twombly's horizontal grid seems to represent the formal constraints of the sonnet, or perhaps a schematic index of the poetry he was reading at the time. Farther down, at the grid's foot, is the question: "Where's the poet?"—not Twombly's question, but the title of an unfinished fragment by Keats, written in 1818 and never published in his lifetime: "Where's the poet? Show him! Show him! / Muses nine, that I may know him!" The ekphrastic question (how show the poet in art?) is repeated at lower right, above Twombly's signature, the place, and the date (Ischia, 1960)."

Mary Jacobus, Reading Cy Twombly: Poetry in Paint, Princeton 2016, p. 190