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Untitled (Bolsena)

A work made of oil-based house paint, wax crayon, and graphite on canvas.
© Cy Twombly Foundation

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  • A work made of oil-based house paint, wax crayon, and graphite on canvas.

Date:

1969

Artist:

Cy Twombly
American, 1928-2011

About this artwork

Cy Twombly is best known for a synthesis of drawing, painting, and writing that balances abstract with suggestively pictorial impulses. His inimitable scribbles and scrawls are at once intuitive and sublime, casual or even crude and refined. Twombly made the dynamic, brooding Untitled as one in a suite of fourteen large-scale paintings during the summer of 1969 while ensconced at Palazzo del Drago on the shores of Lake Bolsena in central Italy. Against a rich, creamy ground, he elaborated on the cascades of planar and tubular shapes that had emerged in his painting the year before, using diagram-like forms to imbue the canvas with a sense of spatiotemporal flow, as well as a certain airiness. On the other hand, the white field—darkened here and there by passages of erasure—also takes on the aspect of a heavily revised mathematical worksheet. Twombly was immersed both in his work and in his particular location, titling these paintings with the place-name Bolsena. But while typically he might find inspiration in the history of his ancient rural retreat, in this case he was as attuned to that summer’s defining moment: the Apollo II moon landing. Such context enhances our reading of the painting’s enigmatic visual language of measurement, drift, and direction.

Status

On View, Gallery 292

Department

Contemporary Art

Artist

Cy Twombly

Title

Untitled (Bolsena)

Place

United States (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1969

Medium

Oil-based house paint, wax crayon, and graphite on canvas

Dimensions

199.4 × 240 cm (78 1/2 × 94 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Edlis Neeson Collection

Reference Number

2015.139

Copyright

© Cy Twombly Foundation

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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