Overview:

Cy Twombly's distinctive canvases merge drawing, painting, and symbolic gesture in the pursuit of a direct, intuitive form of expression. Twombly’s paintings—florid evocations offering homage to art, myth, and allegory—are a form of improvisational writing. More performative than illustrative, Twombly's inimitable visual language of scribbles, scratches, and scrawls are employed to both suggestive and sublime effects.

Cy Twombly. Untitled, 2003. Private Collection, Gagosian Gallery. ©Cy Twombly. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.

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The 32 works in this exhibition speak to the artist's abiding concern with the natural world—specifically landscape and seascape. Included here are works in a full range of media made between 2000 and 2007, including an untitled series of seven acrylics with wax, pencil, and collage on paper executed in a floral motif (2001); six sculptures in wood and plaster as well as in bronze; seven dry print photographs examining in detail one of the sculptures; a selection of paintings from A Gathering of Time (2003) and the Untitled ("Winter Pictures") (2004); three monumental canvases from the series Blooming: A Scattering of Blossoms and Other Things (2007); and, for the first time in the United States, the three large multipanel paintings that comprise III Notes from Salalah (2005–2007). There are, of course, contemporaneous pictures that address a relevant theme that are not included here and many others in which motifs derived from the natural world do not figure. Overall, however, the scope of this presentation aims to accurately reflect the overarching preoccupations of Twombly's late style. Equal parts delicate and muscular, the new work testifies to the ongoing creative vitality of one of the greatest American artists of our time.

Catalogue: A 96-page full color catalogue, including an essay by James Rondeau, will accompany the exhibition. The catalogue will be distributed by Yale University Press and will be available in the Museum Shop.

Organizer: Cy Twombly: The Natural World, Selected Works 2000-2007 is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago.

Curator: The exhibition is curated by James Rondeau, Frances and Thomas Dittmer Curator and Chair, Department of Contemporary Art.

Sponsor: Major funding is generously provided by Caryn and King Harris, and the Bette and Neison Harris Family Foundation.

Exclusive corporate support has been provided by UBS.

Generous funding has also been provided by Lannan Foundation.

Additional support has been provided by the Society for Contemporary Art.