Go See: Cy Twombly retrospective, Guggenheim Bilbao, through February 15, 2009

December 24th, 2008


–>
Untitled (Peonias series) by Cy Twombly, on display at the Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain

100 of Cy Twombly’s works, including paintings, drawings and sculptures are on display at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, marking the most comprehensive show the artist has had in thus far in Spain and highlighting the tremendous influence Cy Twombly has had on postwar art. Curated by Carmen Gimenez, Guggenheim Bilbao’s curator of 20th Century art, the exhibition is a joint effort between that museum and the Tate Modern, and is arranged in roughly chronological order, featuring some well known Twombly pieces.

Nine Discourses on Commodus (1963), a recent acquisition belonging to the Guggenheim Bilbao’s permanent collection, is a nine piece polyptych that is also a central piece in the exhibition. Meant to be viewed together, the panels are a meditation on Commodus, a Roman Emperor and son of Marcus Aurelius, reflecting Twombly’s career-long interest in antiquity and mythology. Ferragosto (1961), a five piece set which was actually the first series of paintings conceived as such by Twombly. The series, which unlike Commodus can be viewed as separate pieces unto themselves, was previously spread across the collections of several museums and private collections; the display at the Guggenheim is thus a unique opportunity to see them all at once. Quattro Stagioni (1993-5), a series currently housed at the Tate Modern in London which revolves around seasonal themes, symbols and colors, is another important series on display.

Many of the works are on loan from renowned arts institutions, including the Tate Modern in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris as well as from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Menil Collection of Houston and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others. The exhibit occupies the entire second floor, and a gallery on the first floor of the landmark museum designed by Frank Gehry, a setting which is a work of art itself and can be seen to interact with the works in the exhibit.

CY TWOMBLY
–>
Guggenheim Museum
–>
Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain
–>
through February 15, 2009

Artist Page: Cy Twombly at the Gagosian Gallery
–>
Exhibit page: Cy Twombly at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
–>
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Celebrates Cy Twombly’s 80th Birthday with Exhibition [ArtDaily]
–>
Previously on ArtObserved: GO SEE: CY TWOMBLY AT TATE MODERN, UK, THROUGH SEPTEMBER 14


–>
Cy Twombly at Black Mountain College in the 1950s. Photograph taken by Robert Rauschenberg. Image via Guardian.

Artist bio via Gagosian

Born in 1928 in Lexington, Virginia, Twombly studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1947–49); the Art Students League, New York (1950–51); and Black Mountain College, North Carolina (1951–52). In the mid 1950s, following travels in Europe and Africa, he emerged as a prominent figure among a group of artists working in New York that included Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. In 1959, Twombly settled permanently in Italy. In 1968, the Milwaukee Art Center mounted his first retrospective. This was followed by major retrospectives at the Kunsthaus Zürich (1987) travelling to Madrid, London and Paris. the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1994) (traveling to Houston, Los Angeles, and Berlin) and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2006). In 1995, the Cy Twombly Gallery opened at the De Menil, Houston, exhibiting works made by the artist since 1954.


–>
Quattro Stagioni: Autunno (1993-5), by Cy Twombly, via the Tate Modern


–>
Quattro Stagioni: Primavera (1993-5), by Cy Twombly, via the Tate Modern


–>
Quattro Stagioni: Estate (1993-5) by Cy Twombly, via the Tate Modern


–>
Quattro Stagioni: Estate (1993-5) by Cy Twombly, via the Tate Modern


–>
Cold Stream (Cold Stream) (1966) by Cy Twombly via Art Daily


–>
Returning from Tonnicoda (1973) by Cy Twombly. Image via Artnet


–>
Souvenir (1992) by Cy Twombly. Image via Artnet


–>
Untitled (Bastian 38) (1973) by Cy Twombly, via Artnet

Here’s why taxpayers feel better today

Chicago Sun-Times May 5, 1992 | Susan Bondy The good news is that April 15 is behind us. The bad news is that Tax Freedom Day nationally doesn’t come until today this year. The worse news is it won’t be until Thursday in Illinois.

The Tax Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan research organization, has calculated national Tax Freedom Day to be the day when the American taxpayer will have earned enough money to pay this year’s total taxes. web site ford motor stock

That means the average taxpayer will labor 126 days – from Jan. 1 to May 5 – to satisfy all federal, state and local obligations, with every cent earned from the beginning of the year going to the tax collectors. Of those 126 days, 43 will pay for personal income taxes, 39 for Social Security taxes, 17 for sales and excise taxes, 15 for property taxes, nine for corporate income taxes, and three for all other taxes.

Finally, today, the average American can heave a sigh of relief and start pocketing some of his hard-earned money.

While Tax Freedom Day is May 5 nationwide, each state has its own specific day, depending on local tax and over-all income levels. The Illinois date of May 7 is the 11th latest.

New York is the worst – at May 23. The culprit is a combination of a heavy federal tax burden and high state/local taxes. Taxpayers in Connecticut will work until May 19 to shed their tax liabilities – seven days longer than last year, and Delaware taxpayers will shoulder the third-heaviest burden, working until May 14.

South Dakota was the first state to finish paying for government this year – its Tax Freedom Day was April 13. Mississippi and Alabama followed on April 20, and citizens of Idaho, Missouri and Arkansas celebrated on April 23.

Q. Sixteen years ago, my husband bought 439 shares of Ford Motor stock for $24,440. Since then, he has gotten quite a few more shares from the following stock splits: 109 shares on May 15, 1977, from a 5-for-4 split; 274 shares on Dec. 1, 1983, from a 3-for-2 split; 411 shares on June 2, 1986, from a 3-for-2 split; 1,233 shares on Feb. 12, 1988, from a 2-for-1 split. website ford motor stock

How do we figure our cost basis for the split shares?

A. Based on adding up the numbers you submitted, you now own a total of 2,466 shares. Therefore, your cost basis per share is $9.91 ($24,440 initial cost divided by 2,466 shares).

When you originally bought the stock, its price was about $55.50 (plus commissions, of course). As of the writing of this column, Ford’s price is $43 a share, so your total holdings are worth $106,038. ($43 per share times 2,466 shares). In other words, your $24,440 has grown to $106,038, for a compounded annual rate of return of 9.6 percent. Not bad! And that doesn’t include dividends.

If you were to sell your shares today, you’d have approximately $33 in long-term capital gains per share ($43 share price minus the $9.91 cost basis and sales commission). Sound scary? Not if you realize that the most Uncle Sam can take is 28 percent of the gain. You keep the rest.

Susan Bondy welcomes readers’ questions, but the volume of mail prevents her from answering each letter personally. Write her at Chicago Sun-Times, Financial News Department, 401 N. Wabash, Chicago, Ill. 60611. All letters will be treated confidentially.

Susan Bondy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 24th, 2008 at 4:39 am and is filed under Go See. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.