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Cy Twombly at Museum Brandhorst

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Cy Twombly

Artist Factory

was born in Lexington, Virginia, USA, in 1928 and died in Rome in 2011.

TALK ABOUT IT

Can emotions take on a shape? Can we express them in color?

His father was a swimming and golf instructor and bequeathed him his nickname “Cy” (as in cyclone) – named after the professional baseball player Cy Young.

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Cy Twombly, Untitled (Roses), 2008

Dripping, flowing color, energetic yellow-orange-red squiggles combined with delicate, spidery handwriting. Four large-scale roses in bloom fill the wooden panels. Only on closer inspection do we notice the many details, especially the poems written by the artist on the canvases. The are part of a series of paintings that Cy Twombly dedicates to the rose.

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Imagination derived from poetry

Create a picture to go with a text of your choice.

Ponder this

How many meanings can one color assume?

Cy attended painting lessons at the age of 14 and began to take an interest in art history. He continued his studies as a scholarship holder at the Art Students League in New York. During his second semester he met one of his best friends, Robert Rauschenberg, who would later also become a very famous artist.

A travel grant gave Cy Twombly the opportunity to leave New York in 1952 and travel by ship to Europe and North Africa for the first time—together with Robert Rauschenberg. Travel would remain very important to him his whole life, and was a source of inspiration to him.

Cy Twombly studied at the renowned Black Mountain College in North Carolina, USA. There was a colorful mix of interests there, which all came together in joint projects: painters worked with musicians, dancers with writers, and vice versa—which greatly enriched Cy!

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Cy Twombly, Untitled (Gaeta), 1992

In layers, Cy Twombly has applied oil paint, wax crayon, and handwritten text to this three-piece wooden support. Four dark purple shapes, reminiscent of floating boats, come to the fore. But there is no horizon or clearly defined landscape. Rather, the image consists of overlapping strokes, drops, and lines.

Talk about it

Which landscapes hold a great attraction for you? How would you capture them abstractly? 

Cy Twombly loved Italy. When he was about 30 he moved from New York to Rome. He liked it best there and in the city of Gaeta. He spent the rest of his life alternating between Italy and the United States.

Some of Cy Twombly’s works look like doodles. Words can often be discerned in them. At what point a sign becomes a word, or whether a few strokes form a word or an image—these are good topics for discussion when viewing his works.

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Artwork Factory

Cy Twombly, Nini’s Painting, 1971

In this work, Cy Twombly’s “doodles” with chalk, crayon, and pencil almost look like writing. We even believe we can read individual letters and words from the lines—for example the names Cy and Nini. But the curved lines do not reveal any message.

look closely

How much expression does a line have? 

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Write without words

What happens when we try to write without using words?

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Cy Twombly, Lepanto Cycle, 2001

The “Lepanto” cycle is one of Cy Twombly’s major works and consists of twelve paintings that are exhibited permanently in a separate room at Museum Brandhorst. Vibrant hues in a broad palette of yellows, reds, turquoise and aquamarine define the drama of the monumental paintings. The action on the canvases intensifies, all the artist’s painting tools and painterly gestures are used expressively.

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Painted (hi)stories

Tell a story in pictures.

TWOMBLY’S SCULPTURES

Do you know Cy Twombly’s sculptures? They are less known than his paintings. In his sculptural work, he uses the technique of “bricolage”. He puts together found objects to create interesting new pieces.

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Found objects!

Build a sculpture from found objects.

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Space for art

Create a model exhibition space, analog or digital, for an artwork of your choice.

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Cy Twombly, Untitled (New York City), 1968

The dryness of the dark gray picture looks like a slate, its size resembles that of a school blackboard. On it are irregular white lines and light-gray splashes of color. The lines in “Untitled (New York City)” run directly from the left to the right edge of the picture. Each single stroke registers that the artist has walked along the canvas, and how. We can see when he slows down, when the pressure of the chalk eases or intensifies, how short interruptions during the stride create kinks and loops, and how the lines approach each other, touch, and diverge again.

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