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Lot Essay
Executed in 1960 Untitled stems from a period when Twombly's deliberate and prolonged un-training of his hand had developed to such a degree of mastery that his raw graphic line had achieved a remarkable and distinctive fluidity, variation and resonance. "Each line," Twombly remarked at this time, "is now the actual experience with its own innate story...it is an involvement in essence ...into a synthesis of feeling, intellect etc occurring without separation in the impulse of action." (Twombly quoted in H. Bastian, Cy Twombly, catalogue raisonn of the paintings 1961-65, vol. II, Munich 1993, p. 21)
In addition to the supple fluency and precision of his graphite line, Twombly has introduced in this work a subtle colouring that punctuates the composition and highlights certain key areas of the canvas. Warm flesh tones of pink are achieved through a blend of a scrawling wax crayon and smeared white paint which add textural quality to the surface of the work and help to establish the fleeting temporal nature of Twombly's largely intuitive marks.
Untitled is one of a number of works executed in Rome in 1960, which follow a sense of progression from the lower left of the canvas to the upper right. Sometimes accompanied by a sequential list of numbers or an increasingly intense progression of graphic marks, in this work Twombly has pinpointed and highlighted this measured sense of diagonal movement by delineating three circles crossed with an 'X'.
The fluency of this complex and spidery development of scribbled line reflects a new confidence and sense of enjoyment in his newly gained mastery of the raw mark. As a result, the work of this period is less about economy than a sense of squandering. With its spontaneous diagonal sense of flow, the present work is a superb example of Twombly's ability to operate within the area defined by the untutored disorderliness of children's art - an art that like Twombly's, exists far beyond the static restrictions and niceties of logic.
In addition to the supple fluency and precision of his graphite line, Twombly has introduced in this work a subtle colouring that punctuates the composition and highlights certain key areas of the canvas. Warm flesh tones of pink are achieved through a blend of a scrawling wax crayon and smeared white paint which add textural quality to the surface of the work and help to establish the fleeting temporal nature of Twombly's largely intuitive marks.
Untitled is one of a number of works executed in Rome in 1960, which follow a sense of progression from the lower left of the canvas to the upper right. Sometimes accompanied by a sequential list of numbers or an increasingly intense progression of graphic marks, in this work Twombly has pinpointed and highlighted this measured sense of diagonal movement by delineating three circles crossed with an 'X'.
The fluency of this complex and spidery development of scribbled line reflects a new confidence and sense of enjoyment in his newly gained mastery of the raw mark. As a result, the work of this period is less about economy than a sense of squandering. With its spontaneous diagonal sense of flow, the present work is a superb example of Twombly's ability to operate within the area defined by the untutored disorderliness of children's art - an art that like Twombly's, exists far beyond the static restrictions and niceties of logic.