Gagosian’s First Show At 980 Madison Was Not Cy Twombly

Now that Gagosian is closing their 980 Madison Avenue space with a Twombly show, the line has gone around that it makes sense, because Gagosian always opened a new space with a Twombly show. But 980 Madison did not open with a Twombly show. It opened with a Jasper Johns show.

Jasper Johns: The Maps was Gagosian’s first show at 980 Madison Avenue. It opened 36 years ago today: February 3rd, 1989. Before that, Gagosian, sometimes called “a Los Angeles dealer” in reviews, had a space in Chelsea, at 521 West 23rd St. The first Cy Twombly exhibition at 980, Bolsena Paintings, opened in December 1989. Twombly’s exhibition history includes a show at Gagosian NY in 1986, which is not in Gagosian’s exhibition archive [indeed, none of the W 23rd St shows are.] In the three-year interim, Twombly showed new and old work with five other New York galleries.

Twombly’s role leading the advance guard for Gagosian expansionism only began in 2004, when Gagosian opened on Brittania Street in London. In 2008, when Gagosian opened in Rome, a city not on the contemporary collecting map at the time, I very clearly remember people saying he was “doing it for Twombly.” Same with Athens in 2009. Paris opened with two shows, Twombly and Prouvé, in 2010. At the same moment, according to Nicola Del Roscio’s thanks in Cy, Dear, Larry gave him and Twombly generous use of his plane, which helped in traveling between Italy and Lexington, and in seeking treatments when Twombly became ill. [And if there’s any justification for private plane travel, it’d be to get an artist in his 80s from his studio in the sticks to the best doctors in town.] Point is, Gagosian was demonstrating a full-spectrum commitment to Twombly and his legatee. Which seems to keep paying off.

But back to the first show at 980 Madison. Times critic John Russell loved it, calling it “an experience to be treasured.” In addition to all but two of Johns’ large Map paintings, there were three “tiny paintings, as magical as anything that has been done since Seurat painted his oil sketches.”

a jasper johns encaustic painting of a map of the usa, in a range of greys, painted over an 8.5 x 11 inch printed map given to the artist by his then-partner robert rauschenberg. the work stayed in rauschenberg's collection, then paul allen bought it, then he died, and christie's sold it, which is why this image is from them. — Jasper Johns, *Map*, 1960 [JJCR P85], encaustic on paper mounted on fiberboard, image via Christie’s

Map (1960) [P85], is the ur-Map, painted in encaustic on the 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper map Rauschenberg gave Johns to use as source material. [Rauschenberg kept it his whole life, and Paul Allen bought it from the foundation. It sold in 2022.]

Map (1961-62) [P119, shown as Small Map (1962)] is an oil on paper map of the same size, perhaps even the same source, with the borders cropped to 6 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches. It was a gift in 1963 from the artist to Leo Castelli’s second wife Toiny.

a grey green painted map of the usa by jasper johns has dotted lines to mark the borders between states. the overpainted sheet is mounted on another sheet of vellum, and the lower half of the vellum is painted with cream encaustic. the whole thing is mounted on canvas. this 1966-67 painting by jasper johns was a gift to the artist lois long, and is only reproduced, i think, in the artist's catalogue raisonnée [as P160], which is why there's a slightly wonky white border on the image, because I took a pic of the open page. — Jasper Johns, Green Map above White, 1966-67, [JJCR P160], 12 1/8 x 10 1/8 in., acrylic on paper mounted on vellum and encaustic, mounted on canvas [image: JJCR]

Green Map above White (1966-67) [P160] was a gift to Lois Long, and appears to be an identical printed map, painted in acrylic, with metallic powder. The borders between the states are dotted lines that made me think of pinholes for transferring a cartoon to a fresco. The map was mounted on vellum, and the lower half is painted in encaustic. I think the Gagosian show was its only public appearance.