Customer Reviews

Cy Twombly: A Retrospective

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CY TWOMBLY is honored in this very beautifuly designed and executed retrospective book. Twombly has been incredibly consistent throughout his career showing us the subtle visual line between the innocence of the child's untutored mark and the angst-ridden metaphysical searching for meaning that his canvases can evoke. Dismissed for a time as an artist who laughed as he displayed his large scribble paintings, Twombly has taken his place among the true greats of 20th Century art. And much of this stature is confidently examined and explained in Kirk Varnedoe's illuminating essay. Twombly's close relationship with Robert Rauschenberg and the influences of Giacometti and Schwitters, Motherwell and Kline, and even dancer Merce Cunningham and composer John Cage are explored with candor and intelligence! His life is sensitively followed and his paintings are given the honor they deserve by placing them with a great deal of negative space in this volume on fine paper and design. The book, another catalogue for a 1995 exhibition at MOMA, is an artwork in and of itself. An elegant and lasting memoir of a fine artist.

certainly it is difficult for one who has not attempted to translate intense emotion or passion into a simple form, such as a gesture, a line, a stroke of color, paint applied directly by hand... to define the essence of a feeling, or a time past, or a love felt, or a life lived, in a most direct and sensual manner. these are the things cy twombly has spent over thirty years perfecting. what appears to some as "something my kid could do" is, in fact, a complete and sophisticated language. indeed, the very nature of his paintings' seemingly primitive, but wonderfully natural appearance is, in itself, an achievement of magnificent proportions. most books cannot capture the power of an artists ouvre, but this is a great introduction. for a real experience however, may i suggest visiting the philadelphia museum of art which has "50 days at ilium" on semi-permanent display, or travel to houston to see the museum dedicated exclusively to twomblys' work, thanks to the de menil foundation.

michael thoresen

Hello, Twombly lovers!

I am a huge twombly admirer & have more than 20 twombly books. This one is the best value IMHO. Everythings excellent. print & photo quality, amount of works & its selection, information & writing...
Of course I,myself regard Catalogue Raisonne as the best but cost too much to get that(also hard to find- I bought mine while I was traveling abroad). For the fans of twombly like me, I recommend these and Harald Szeemann's book(Mine is german pressed-not sure about american version.) strongly which also have great works not shown on other books. And I was quite happy when the 50 years of drawing book came out while ago but I definitely felt the french version's better in a sense of printing quality(beautiful...) while I couldn't read French - contents not same with american version.(frustrated but still satisfied with printing quality)

Keep beeing happy through Mr. Twombly's aesthetic serenade.

P.S) Oh! Get the hardcover version if you can.(Far better than paperback version. also great feeling the carmine color surface inside the mylar cover... too picky? :)

This book is (was) the best twombly monograph available. If you can lay hands on it, don't hesitate. Although Twombly's work is best experienced "live", this book does a pretty fine job in "translating" the subtle nuances of the canvases.

Another excellent book is the monograph published years ago in France by the Pompidou centre.

Come, brethren, let us rejoice that the "artist" who is the subject of this book is dead. The world is better off without fraudsters like him cluttering up the galleries of the world with their infantile scribble. This is the lowest of the low. The worst artist of the twentieth century. And that's saying a lot, considering that the whole point of art in the twentieth century was that anyone could do it. I only hope that my good friend Grabowski can make some comment on my review so that I can be assured of its propriety.

If you tied pencils of various colors pointing downward on the back-heels of three chickens, and had them jump and hop and walk around on a large piece of paper, the visual result would be the exact equivalent of your average Cy Twombly piece! Cy Twombly is a joke!!!!! How could anyone claim he is an artist at all, much less an important one!!!! Yikes! Buying a book of his work would be like buying string and saying you've bought some fine pasta.