Description from the Publisher
This catalogue documents the exhibition Cy Twombly, The Photographer, the first Italian retrospective on the photographic activity of the artist held at the American Academy in Rome (7 October 2015 – 22 November 2015). Drawn from the archive of the Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, the photographs on display provide a unique perspective on Twombly’s varied interests and transatlantic career. A plethora of photographs of still lives of fruit and flowers, portraits and fragments of landscapes constitute visual and formal notes, considerations on the nature or ontology of everyday objects. This rich corpus of evocative imagery provides us with insight into the artist’s daily operations in his studio as well as glimpses of a parallel intimate, private life passed on both sides of the atlantic.
Whilst Twombly is principally known for his paintings and sculpture, he has also found in photography a medium to express his view of the world in which he is immersed. Sometimes his photographs are simply reflections on his own paintings in progress and on other occasions they are ponderations on a renaissance masterpiece or the remnants of classical statuary, testifying to Twombly’s interest in the history of art and the fragment. Nevertheless each image possesses a poetic quality that is intrinsic both to photography and to the artist’s vision of the world.
The catalogue contains a selection of photographs on display and two essays, Pictures by Mark Robbins, director AAR and Cy Twombly, Photographer by Peter Benson Miller, curator of the exhibition.
Cy Twombly, Photographer. With essays by Mark Robbins, Peter Benson Miller. Published by NERO. 2015. 96 pages. Fully illustrated. English edition.