Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio hosts, Saturday, July 1st, 2023, at 6.00 pm the presentation of two publishing projects  dedicated  to  the  work  and  to  the  extraordinary  artistic  experience  of  Cy  Twombly  (1928-2011): Cy Twombly. INSCRIPTIONS,  in  six  volumes,  published by Brill | Fink 2022, by  the  author Thierry Greub,  and Cy Twombly et la critique américaine 1951-1955. Histoire d’une réception, Editions  du  Regard,  2022 /  English version edited by Gagosian Gallery NY, 2023, by the author Richard Leeman. 

The discussions will be moderated respectively by Prof. Dr. Klaus-Peter Busse and by Eric De Chassey. The talk is introduced by the curator Peter Benson Miller.

Poetry  has  been  a  fundamental  part  of the work  for  Cy  Twombly  and  has  been  a  source  of  inspiration throughout  his  entire  artistic  research.  In  fact,  the  artist  used  to  inscribe  verses  and  fragments  taken  from poems by ancient and modern authors in his works. 

The editorial project of Thierry Greub, Cy Twombly. INSCRIPTIONS, collects for the first time 901 of Twombly’s written notations, presenting them in transcriptions and in the context of their 113 different literary sources, and so traces the artist’s lifelong intellectual engagement with poetry and the forms of the scriptural. 

The introductory volume, drawing on the result of the work of transcription and ascription, analyzes  how  Cy Twombly’s inscriptional practice developed and  how  complex  constellations  of  contextual  references  are created  between  the  scriptural  and the  graphic  in  his  work. Against the  background of the conception  of poetics  of  Charles  Olson,  Twombly’s  teacher  at  Black  Mountain  College,  it  becomes  evident  that  in  Twombly the  scriptural  is  the  principal  bearer  of  “remanence”,  the  phenomenon  that  enables  a  re-enactment,  in  each present moment of reception, of what is represented. Cy Twombly described this energy force and emotional intensity  as  “the  phenomenon  of  finding  the  memory  of  something  that  has  vanishes  and  left  no  trace  of itself”. 

Cy Twombly et la critique américaine. Histoire d’une reception (Editions du  Regard)  by  Richard  Leeman  is  a study of the reception of Cy Twombly’s work by American critics, from hisfirst exhibition to the retrospective dedicated by the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1994-1995. At first, the volume examines the status of the painter in  the  context  of  the  triumph  of  Abstract Expressionism,  in  the  early  stages of  his  career  (1951-1957),  at  the  beginnings  of  Pop  and  Minimal  art, a  time  when  the  artist  settled  in  Europe  (1957-1966),  then analyzing the post-Minimal decade (1966-1976), which opened some breaches in the dominant formalist and modernist  mainstream.  At the  end  the  focus  is  concentrated  on the  80s  and  90s,  in  which  the  postmodern discourse  reevaluates  these latter  criteria, during years  in  which  the  artist was involved  and  in  which  he  also became a notable prominent figure. The reception of Twombly in the United States is therefore symptomatic, throughout his  career,  of  those  assumptions  that  have  governed  art  criticism  and  history  according  to  the different historical contexts. 

The book launch  is  part  of  a cycle of  presentations that  enriches  the interdisciplinary  research program  of Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, in the field of visual arts, music, literature and the environmental protection. 

The wide program of studies and research his conceived to lead the audience to discover the work and artistic experience of Cy Twombly.