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CY TWOMBLY (b.1928) UNTITLED (BOLSENA) signed and dated "CT 1969" center right house paint, oil, ...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:2,500,000.00 - 3,500,000.00 USD
CY TWOMBLY (b.1928) UNTITLED (BOLSENA) signed and dated  CT 1969  center right house paint, oil, ...
CY TWOMBLY
(b.1928)
UNTITLED (BOLSENA)
signed and dated "CT 1969"
center right
house paint, oil, crayon and graphite on canvas
783/4 x 983/8 in. (200 x 250 cm)
executed in 1969
ESTIMATE: $2,500,000-3,500,000
PROVENANCE
Galleria Gian Enzo Sperone, TURIN/ROME
Galerie Art in Progress, MUNICH
Saatchi Collection, LONDON
Larry Gagosian, NEW YORK
EXHIBITED
NEW YORK, Gagosian Gallery, CY TWOMBLY: BOLSENA, 1989, no. 5 (illustrated)
LITERATURE
H. Bastian, CY TWOMBLY: CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ OF THE PAINTINGS,
Vol. III, MUNICH, 1993, no. 89, p.198 (illustrated)
Galleria Gian Enzo Sperone, JIM DINE, ROY LICHTENSTEIN, MORRIS LOUIS, MICHAELANGELO PISTOLETTO, ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG, MARIO SCHIFANO, FRANK STELLA, CY TWOMBLY, ANDY WARHOL, ROME, 1975, n.p. (illustrated)
R. Rosenblum, "CY TWOMBLY," ART OF OUR TIME-THE SAATCHI COLLECTION, Vol. 2, 1984, pl. 66 (illustrated)
In the summer of 1969, Cy Twombly painted 14 large canvases on the shore of Lago di Bolsena. In this group of works, Twombly transforms the minimal gesture of the Grey paintings into a more expressive, poetic dialogue of color, line and form. "In Twombly's work since about the mid sixties, investigation with a strong formal thrust have moved into the foreground; these pursue mainly the categories of space and time in connection with a great variety of artistic and extra-artistic critiques" (Cy Twombly, The Menil Collection, Houston, p. 20).
In Untitled (Bolsena), 1969, concrete and imaginary elements float freely on the white canvas to create a resonant, psychologically charged landscape. Numbers, words and abstract shapes are all formal representations of the artist's personal experience of modern life as well as his exploration of grand, universal themes. It has been explained that before 1969, "...Cy Twombly had used mathematic notation as a way to temporally anchor events taking place at the same time, as symbols corresponding to Plato's semi-reality of sensible appearances, mythological numbers cued to a psyche as might be tallied by Pythagoreans, or as a codification of artistic canon as guaranteed by the Polycletans; now, Twombly uses these transcriptions to survey and demarcate the components of a multivalent, suddenly opaque accomplishment. In certain works the numbers themselves become the primary subject of a lordly procession taking place in a landscape broaching a distant sky" (H. Bastian, CY TWOMBLY: CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ OF THE PAINTINGS, VOL. III 1966-1971, MUNICH, p. 32).
In Untitled (Bolsena), numerous streaks of white oil paint blend quickly with the light background into which rich blue colors are mixed sporadically. This underscores a diagonal movement across the canvas. In this movement are combined sketchy geometric forms, a hint of systematic ordering with freely invented symbols. The surface of the canvas is almost transparent-it revels the process of painting, the investigation of the picture space through adding and erasing, highlighting and shadowing. Painted during the first landing of men on the moon, the light and scattered topology of the canvas is perhaps related to this historical journey through space.