Lot 12 N

“By reducing painting to symbols and their inevitable extension, the line, thus to their essence, he discovers a method of representation that is able record the very finest emotions of a psychological and physiological kind. And since the graphic nature of his art opens up the possibility of language and thus of writing within painting, he can express his feelings even more distinctly. At times, his work exhibits an almost agonising vulnerability becoming an intimate diary of his emotional life that has few equals in 20th century art,” writes Roberta Smith about Cy Twombly’s unprecedented expressiveness (Roberta Smith, Der große Mittler, in: Harald Szeemann (ed.), Cy Twombly, Bilder, Arbeiten auf Papier, Skulpturen, Munich 1987, p.13).
The important composition offered here, from 1963, a very productive year for his oeuvre of drawings, is condensed within a vertical structure in the centre of the pictorial space. Rectangular, architectural elements combine with organically shaped hatchings. Relating to the restriction of colour to black and red, associations can be drawn to a hearth with fire and smoke. Scriptural elements in the lower part of the composition flow into the artist’s signature. Cultural knowledge, aesthetic experience and the emotional state combine to form a pictorial statement of timeless validity.