AO Art Observed™

The Rose (2008) by Cy Twombly, via Gagosian Gallery

Currently on display at Gagosian’s Britannia Street Gallery in London are five new monumental paintings by American artist Cy Twombly.  Each painting depicts four wood panels with three vibrantly colored roses in full bloom.  The colors of the roses range from deep burgundy to bright orange, violet, crimson, and gold against a turquoise background.  Stanzas from “Les Roses” by German poet Rainer Maria Rilke are inscribed on the last panel of each painting. The poems inspired this series of works and tell of the artist’s characteristic coupling of painting and poetry.

Exhibition Page: Cy Twombly: The Rose
Last-Chance Timeless Beauty: ‘Cy Twombly: The Rose’ shown at the Gagosian Gallery, London [Financial Times]
Cy Twombly Covers Walls of Gagosian Gallery with Giant Roses [Bloomberg]
Cy Twombly: The Rose [Art Newspaper]
Charles Spencer: How my admiration for Cy the scribbler blossomed. [Daily Telegraph]
Titian and Twombly: the most youthful of old masters [GuardianUK ]

more images and story…

The Rose (II) (2008) by Cy Twombly, via Gagosian Gallery

Twombly allows the paint to drip and flow down each panel as if to capture the inevitable interaction between the paint and the effects of gravity. The use of bold and vibrant colors within a natural setting while referring to poetic quotations is characteristic of some of Twombly’s earlier works. For example, Analysis of the Rose as Sentimental Despair (1985), now in The Menil Collection in Houston, cites quotations by Rilke, Rumi, and Giacomo Leopardi as well as incorporates depictions of the natural world evoking the inevitable rhythms of death and rebirth.

Installation view Cy Twombly: The Rose, via Gagosian Gallery

Born in 1928 in Lexington, VA, Cy Twombly has exhibited his work extensively since the mid-1960s. His most recent exhibitions include a retrospective at the Tate Modern similar to one currently on view at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao that will travel to the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome later this year.  Another exhibit of Twombly’s recent works will inaugurate the new building of The Art Institute of Chicago in May 2009.

Installation view Cy Twombly: The Rose, via Gagosian Gallery

Installation view Cy Twombly: The Rose, via Gagosian Gallery

-R.A. Proctor

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