- 151
Cy Twombly
Estimate
350,000 - 450,000 USD
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Description
- Cy Twombly
- Klu
- titled on the stretcher
- oil-based house paint and earth on canvas
- 40 by 52 in. 101.6 by 132.1 cm.
- Executed in 1951.
Provenance
Robert Motherwell, Greenwich (gift of the artist in December 1951)
Thence by descent to Renate Ponsold Motherwell
Thence by descent to Renate Ponsold Motherwell
Exhibited
New York, Kootz Gallery, New Talent: Gandy and Twombly, December 1951, illustrated on the invitation card
Literature
Exh. Cat., New York, Sperone Westwater, Cy Twombly: Paintings and Sculptures 1951 & 1953, 1989, cat. no. 1, illustrated
Heiner Bastian, Ed., Cy Twombly: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume 1: 1948-1960, Munich 1992, cat. no. 24, p. 60, illustrated
Heiner Bastian, Ed., Cy Twombly: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Volume 1: 1948-1960, Munich 1992, cat. no. 24, p. 60, illustrated
Condition
This work is in very good condition overall. Please contact the Contemporary Department at (212) 606-7254 for a professional condition report prepared by Terrence Mahon.
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
"I believe that Cy Twombly is the most accomplished young painter whose work I happen to have encountered: he is a 'natural' in regard to what is going on in painting now...what leads one quite spontaneously to call him a 'natural,' is his native temperamental affinity with the abandon, the brutality, the irrational in avant-garde painting of the moment. His painting process, of which the pictures are the tracks that are left, as when one walks on a beach, is orgastic: the sexual character of the fetishes half-buried in his violent surface is sufficiently evident (and so is not allowed to emerge anymore). Yet the art in his painting is rational, often surprisingly simply symmetrical, and invariably harmonious."
Robert Motherwell, introduction to Cy Twombly's first solo exhibition at The Seven Stairs Gallery in Chicago, October 1951