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Drawings & Notes

1 February 2023
drawing Willem de Kooning Untitled, 1959 Ink on paper - drawings, contemporary drawing, work on paper, contemporary art, art on paper

Willem de Kooning

Untitled, 1959
Ink on paper
99.7 x 69.8 cm

Roma New York 1953 – 1964
Including: Afro, Carla Accardi, Franco Angeli, Luigi Boille, Alberto Burri, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Piero Dorazio, Tano Festa, Giosetta Fioroni, Philip Guston, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Jannis Kounellis, Conrad Marca-Relli , Gastone Novelli, Achille Perilli, Robert Rauschenberg, Mimmo Rotella, Salvatore Scarpitta, Mario Schifano, Toti Scialoja, Mark Tobey, Cy Twombly
12 January – 25 February 2023
David Zwirner Gallery, New York

Giosetta Fioroni

Ragazza sovietica, 1969
Pencil and enamel on paper on canvas
179.1 x 140.3 cm

Cy Twombly

Sperlonga drawing, 1959
Oil-based house paint, pencil, and wax crayon on paper
69.9 x 100 cm

Mario Schifano

No. 2 dagli Archivi del Futurismo, 1965
Enamel and graphite on canvas
160.3 x 114.9 cm

14 October 2022

Cy Twombly

Untitled, 2002
Acrylic, wax crayon, and pencil on handmade paper, in unbound handmade book, 16 pages
Each page (approximately): 56.9 x 38.7 cm

Cy Twombly
15 September – 17 December 2022
Gagosian Gallery

Cy Twombly
Untitled, 2004
Acrylic on canvas
213.7 x 151.7 cm

8 March 2018

Cy Twombly

Untitled (Gaeta), 1989
Acrylic and tempera on paper mounted on wood panel
203.2 x 148.9 cm

Cy TwomblyIn Beauty it is finished: Drawings 1951–2008
8 March –25 April 2018
Gagosian Gallery

Cy Twombly
Untitled (In Beauty it is finished)
, 1993 – 2002 (detail)
Acrylic, wax crayon, pencil and pen on handmade paper in unbound handmade book
36 pages, each page 56.8 x 40 cm

[from the pressrelease]
“Throughout his career, Twombly sustained an active engagement with drawing, gesture, and making marks on paper. His urgent, meandering lines embody the intimate energies that carry over into his paintings, sculptures, and photographs. Despite their enigmatic qualities, Twombly’s drawings are strikingly articulate in their rhythm, line, and allusions. At once economical and deeply sensual, they contain a timeless language, mediating between ancient and modern culture.

In the 1950s, when Twombly was a young artist, Abstract Expressionism radically disrupted the conventions of easel painting. Although he was a contemporary of Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, his work eventually departed from the aims of American postwar abstraction. While prevailing movements of the period, such as Pop art and Minimalism, sought to abandon historical narratives altogether, Twombly, who began to spend time in Europe during this period, directed his focus to classical, modern, and ancient poetic traditions.

One of the earliest works included in the exhibition is from a 1951 sketchbook. Several drawings feature cascades of pencil markings, subtle gradations, erasures, and other evidence of Twombly’s intense contact with the paper. In the late 1950s Twombly moved to Italy, and Volume 2, which documents this period, includes colorful, diagrammatic works such as Ode to Psyche (1960), featuring erotic allusions and jokes while maintaining an abstract charge. Through the 1960s, sensuousness and color pervade the drawings, which eventually evolve into more austere gray and blue “blackboard” works.

Works from later volumes present changing preoccupations in Twombly’s practice and thinking, as he plunged further into poetic and mythic sources. As he continued to work in various locations—including his hometown of Lexington, Virginia, and his final residence in Gaeta, Italy—places, landscapes, and natural forms came to figure prominently in drawings, collages, and watercolor series.”

Cy Twombly
Untitled (Gaeta), 1990
Acrylic, wax crayon and pencil on handmade paper
77.8 x 54.8 cm

Cy Twombly
Untitled, 1954
Gouache, wax crayon and colored pencil on paper
48.5 x 64 cm

A weblog about contemporary drawing, scribbles, notes and an occasional painting or photograph. Click on images to go directly to original pictures, or on the links to learn more about the artist involved. 

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