Cy Twombly Flower Arrangements

a 2011 photo of a 1998 cy twombly sculpture of a black colored bronze rose on top of a lumpy white rock stained with rust, atop a box neatly wrapped in fading purple now brownish velvet, with a cheaply engraved brass plaque on the face of the box, sitting on a white pedestal, probably in the dulwich picture gallery, the first place this sculpture was publicly exhibited. — Cy Twombly, That Which I Should Have Done, I Did Not Do, 1998, 36 x 37 x 27.5 cm, bronze, stone, velvet, box, brass, at Dulwich Picture Gallery via Independent

I’ve had the tabs open so long I can’t remember where I heard or from whom, but someone had made a big point about visiting Cy Twombly and seeing a sculpture in a bedroom that had never been seen, in a style that didn’t fit his typical style. It was a tacky plastic flower, painted black, on a rusty rock, on a velvet-covered box, with a plaque like from a bowling trophy.

the cover of cy twombly photographs written in his trademark scrawl on two tan bands above and below a blurry polaroid photo of a sculpture detail of a black bronze rose and a rusty spot on a speckled white stone — Cover, Cy Twombly Photographs, 1951-1999, 2002, Nicola Del Roscio, images via Gagosian Shop, which, obv there was a 1993 Matthew Marks exhibition catalogue of photos before this, but still

At first, I remember thinking, really? The 1998 sculpture on the cover of Twombly’s first monograph of photos, published in 2002? But that is a different experience. [Interesting, the sculpture is configured differently in photos inside.]

two page spread from cy twombly photos with polaroids from 1998 of a sculpture, the same as on the cover, with a black rose on a white rock on what looks like red velvet, and a cropped section of a brass plaque engraved with a phrase, that which i should do. the photo on the right is upside down and mostly crops out the flower. — Cy Twombly sculpture, That Which I Should Have &c &c, photographed in a different state in 1998, via Cy Twombly Photos, image via Gagosian Shop

And then it’s like, oh, the one which was exhibited for the first time in 2011, alongside the mausoleums of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, where Twombly’s two-artist exhibition with Poussin opened the week before his death? That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (1998)?

The title may be more atypical for Twombly than the sculpture itself, because it comes not from a poem but from another artwork. That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do (The Door), 1931-41, by Ivan Albright is a moody, funereal painting of a floral wreath wilting on a door, which has been at the Art Institute of Chicago since 1955. No idea what the connection might be.

a marble sculpture of confederate loser and traitor to his country robert e lee reclined on a draped lounge, on a marble pedestal, in a room with windows shutters and marble tiled floor, and several wreaths and flower arrangements at the base, which have been hand-colored poorly on this circa 1910 postcard photo. — a hand-colored postcard circa 1910 of wreaths and flowers laid at the base of Edward Valentine’s sculpture of Robert E. Lee in the Lee Chapel at Washington & Lee University in Lexington, via mygeneaologyhound

But Twombly’s sculpture floods me with associations of Lexington and the family situations he was dealing with there, and, frankly, the way Robert E. Lee’s memorial statue of him reclining on a draped lounger is the historic psychic center of town.

And then I wondered how awareness, or even familiarity, doesn’t diminish the mysteriousness of seeing a Twombly sculpture. Maybe they all kind of feel like things long unseen, unknown. Something we’re the first to come upon, and we don’t quite know what to make of it.

a cy twombly sculpture of an overturned whiskey crate with a plaster wedge on top like a roof, all painted drippy white, and a bouquet of colorful wads of paper towel soaked with acrylic paint, remnants of his studio practice — Cy Twombly, *Untitled (Lexington)*, 2001, paint, paper towels, plaster, wooden whisky crate, collection Museum Brandhorst. The red on the side photographed earlier as much darker purple, btw

It make me think of another sculpture, Untitled (Lexington), 2001, which has a bouquet of scrunched up, paint-soaked paper towels on top of a truncated white pedestal. The towel flowers first felt like the studio, a verité portrait of a work table. Which may be because Sally Mann took that portrait in 2012, and it was published in her book and in Twombly Studios & Homes:

sally mann photo of cy twombly's studio shot straight down onto a little table or tray of paint-saturated wads of paper towels in uneven rows, and various colors, a festive and messy scene — Sally Mann, Studio, Balls of Tissue, aka Remembered Light: Untitled (Balls of Tissue), 2012, via The New Yorker

Writing this now they also reminded me of the wreath on Albright’s door. But I think I thought of it because there’s a picture somewhere of Untitled (Lexington) in a bedroom, the only thing on the night stand.

[remembered it update: WOW no, it is another work, and it is in Cy Dear, in the bedroom, probably in Gaeta, where Nicola Del Roscio’s Picasso is sitting on the floor. Oh no, my heart is breaking it looks like a wedding cake.]

a slightly angled photo of a computer screen with a still from cy, dear, a documentary about cy twombly. in an italian villa above the sea a shuttered bedroom is filled mostly by a large bed with a pink and white striped coverlet, which protrudes into half the frame from the left. centered behind it is a tall narrow wood framed mirror. to the immediate right of the mirror is a copy of a 1930s picasso painting of a woman, in a very simplified geometric cartoon style, mostly in blues and greys. it is framed and sitting on the floor. except it is not by picasso, but a copy cy twombly made for his nicola. in the corner of the room on the left, behind the bed, a dark wood nightstand has a twombly sculpture on it, white and shaped like the top tier of a large wedding cake, and the white cake base part is topped by a mound of bright, multicolored wads of paper towel, saturated with paint, which resemble an extravagant bouquet. this documentary was made with nicola's blessing eight or so years after twombly passed away, and honestly, it feels a bit too soon for him. i hope this sculpture brings him peace — Flower toppers and Picassos, a literal shot of my screen of a scene from Cy Dear with a brightly colored sculpture on the nightstand.