Artist Cy Twombly dies aged 83 in Rome

American who exiled himself from his country of birth was seen by many as an heir to abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock Cy Twombly, the US artist whose graffiti-style paintings on large canvases established him in the eyes of many as the heir to Jackson Pollock, has died in hospital in Rome at the age of 83. After emerging from the New York art scene of the 1950s, he was to cultivate and be inspired by a life-long association with Europe’s history and culture, and is regarded as a key figure among a generation of artists who strived to evolve beyond abstract expressionism. Born Edwin Parker Twombly Jr in Lexington, Virginia, in 1928, he took on his father’s nickname, Cy. A student of a number of US art colleges, he travelled extensively in Europe and was to be influenced in later years by his service as a cryptologist in the US military. After spending much of the 1950s in New York, where friends included Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, Twombly left for Italy. His work was shown at the Venice Biennale in 1964 before he began drifting away from expressionism and embarking on the abstract sculptures that were to become closely associated with him. The artist, who had been living in Italy, was hospitalised in Rome last week, according to Eric Mezil, the director of the Lambert collection in Avignon. An exposition of Twombly’s photographs opened last month at the Lambert collection. An exhibition of his work and that of Nicolas Poussin, whom he admired, started last week at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London. One of the most important exhibitions of his work in decades took place at Tate Modern in 2008. It included his Quattro Stagioni (Four Seasons), A Painting in Four Parts (1993-94). “Ah, it goes, is lost,” Twombly had scrawled in pencil on one of the four tall canvases, in a reflection of some of the themes to which he often returned: time, love and doomed desire. Cy Twombly Painting Venice Biennale Nicolas Poussin Tate Modern Art Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 5, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.