Wilder Shores of Love, 1985,  Private collection © Robert Bayer, BilDPuNKT AG, Munchenstein

Walking into the first room of the Cy Twombly exhibition at Pompidou center was like entering a sacred temple. The emotion was immense and the pleasure doubled by the presence of many knowledgeable curators who talked brilliantly about his work. This retrospective of 140 paintings, photographs and sculptures was curated by Jonas Storsve and made possible by the Cy Twombly foundation: it will not travel elsewhere. Ambassador Hartley had organised a private viewing where we were almost alone, with just a few museum guards who were also discovering the show.

A view of the Sacré Coeur through the spectacular sculpture room, photo Pierre Provoyeur

One of the many surprises was to find out that Twombly had started as a photographer in 1951 in North Carolina with « Still life Black Mountain college », a group of Morandi looking photographs. Later in 1953, his sculptures made in Robert Rauschenberg’s studio on Fulton street will be just as stunning.

Still Life, Black Mountain College, 1951 © Fondazione Nicola Del Roscio, courtesy Archives Nicola Del Roscio

The two paintings called « The Wilder shores of love » in 1984 and 1985, after Lesley Blanch’s famous novel, were produced after he came back from Yemen and Egypt, where he spent a long time in Luxor with his son Alessandro. They are one of the many examples where litterature and history inspired his work.

The impressive room with “Nine discourses on Commodus”, 1963, Guggenheim Bilbao Museo, Bilbao

Just after falling in love with Italy in 1957, he met the gallerist Leo Castelli in New York and married Luisa Tatiana Franchetti, with whom he lived part of the year in Italy.
He spent a lot of time in Paris and painted a stage curtain for the Bastille opera in 1986, had a first retrospective at the Pompidou center in 1988. An avid traveller, Twombly went to North Africa with Rauschenberg, to Russia, Afghanistan and Iran.  He was awarded the “Praemium Imperial” in Tokyo in 1996. And there is a building devoted to his work at the Menil Collection in Houston. It was designed in 1995 by Renzo Piano.
One of the most impressive rooms of the show is that of the “Nine discourses on Commodus” the Roman emperor,  which were lent by the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum. Another room of  sculptures with the background of Paris roofs and the Sacré Cœur is overwhelming.

« Sans titre (Bassano in Teverina ) » is inspired by Roman churches.

Lemons, Gaète, 1998, © Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy Archives Nicola Del Roscio

Yvon Lambert, who published the catalogue raisonné of his works, lent the series of “Pan”, 1980 and François Pinault lent “Coronation of Sesostris”, 2000.

There are many facets of Cy Twombly’s to be found in this show and whether you prefer his black and white graffiti drawings or his very coloured « Summer Madness », you will walk out of the exhibition feeling soothed and hapyy, another proof that art can make you a better person.

Sperlonga Collage, 1959, © Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy Archives Nicola Del Roscio © Photo : Mimmo Capone

(The show runs until April 24, Centre Pompidou)