 “My favorite Twombly is ‘Apollo and the Artist,’ with the big ‘Apollo’ written across it.” - Jean Michel Basquiat, to Henry Geldzahler, 1983. “His favorite painters were Kline and Twombly, especially Twombly. Jean said that Twombly taught him that he could scratch things out on the canvas." - The Widow Basquiat, page 40, by Jennifer Clement, based on the memories of Basquiat's girlfriend Suzanne Mallouk. Cy Twombly obituary in the New York Times. A great, and groundbreaking, analysis of Twombly's work (which contains some insights into Basquiat's technique and allusions) is by Rolland Barthes, and can be found in The Responsibility of Forms and Cy Twombly: 50 Years of Works on Paper. See my further thoughts on Twombly and Basquiat here. A small memorial exhibition of eight Twombly paintings is now on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, till October 2nd, 2011. A stark and intimate exhibition of seven Twombly sculptures can bee seen at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, till October 3rd. Twombly and Poussin are on view at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, till September 25th. More of his late work will be shown, along with Money and Turner, in a traveling posthumous exhibition at Moderna Museet in Stockholm (8 October 2011 – 15 January 2012), the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in Germany (11 February – 28 May 2012), and the Tate Liverpool (22 June – 28 October 2012). More are permanently on view at the Cy Twombly Gallery, part of the Menil Collection, 1501 Branard, Houston, Texas. |