Cy Twombly Biography
On April 25, 1928, Twombly was born in Lexington, Virginia. Twombly’s father, also known as “Cy,” was a pitcher for the Chicago White Sox. They were both named after baseball legend Cy Young, who pitched for the Cardinals, Red Sox, Indians, and Braves, among others.
At the age of 12, Twombly began taking private art lessons from Catalan modern master Pierre Daura. After graduating from Lexington High School in 1946, Twombly went on to attend Darlington School in Rome, Georgia, as well as the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (1948-49) and Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia (1949-50). Rauschenberg encouraged him to attend Black Mountain College in North Carolina, near Asheville. In 1951 and 1952, he studied with Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, and Ben Shahn at Black Mountain, where he also met John Cage. Charles Olson, the poet and rector of the College, had a significant influence on him.
Cy Twombly Career
Edwin Parker “Cy” Twombly Jr. was a painter, sculptor, and photographer from the United States. He was a member of the generation that included Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Following his return in 1953, Twombly served in the United States army as a cryptologist, an experience that left an indelible mark on his artistic style. He lived in New York from 1955 to 1959, where he became a prominent figure among a group of artists that included Robert Rauschenberg, with whom he shared a studio, and Jasper Johns. Twombly moved to Leo Castelli Gallery after having an art piece shown at Stable Gallery from 1953 to 1957, and later exhibited with Gagosian Gallery. On December 15, 2007, Gagosian Gallery opened a new gallery in Rome, Twombly’s hometown, with the inaugural exhibition, Three Notes from Salalah.
Twombly’s 1971 untitled blackboard painting set a record for the artist when it sold for $5.5 million at a Christie’s auction in 1990. In 2011, Christie’s in New York sold Untitled, a 1967 Twombly work, for $15.2 million. [49] Sotheby’s set a new record in May 2012 with the sale of the 1970 painting Untitled (New York) for $17.4 million (€13.4 million). Poems to the Sea (1959), an abstract, 24-part multimedium work on paper, set a Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Sale record price of $21.7 million in November 2013.
Cy Twombly Personal Life and Net Worth
Twombly moved to Rome in 1957 and fell in love with Baroness Tatiana Franchetti. They married in 1959 in New York and had a son, Cyrus Alessandro Twombly. Cyrus, like his father, grew up to be a painter. Following their marriage, the couple purchased a palazzo in Rome. They also had a villa from the 17th century. They were married until Tatiana died in 2010.
He met Nicola Del Roscio of Gaeta in 1964, and she became his long-term assistant, archivist, and companion. In the quaint Italian village, he even bought a house and rented a studio.
He died on July 5, 2011, in Rome, after a long battle with cancer. His will bequeathed the majority of his artwork and money to the Cy Twombly Foundation.
