(Lexington, Virginia 1928–2011 Rome)
Untitled (Formia), 1981, initialled bottom left on recto in pencil: C.T., inscribed, signed and dedicated on the reverse, acrylic and pencil on handmade paper of irregular size, 75 x 55 cm

This drawing was executed in 1981. Only the dedication dates from 1991

Provenance:
European Private Collection
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Literature:
Nicola Del Roscio, Cy Twombly, Drawings, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 7, 1980-1989, ed. Schirmer/Mosel, Munich 2016, p. 63, no. 59, with ill.

Executed in 1981, Untitled (Formia) reflects the beginning of a new artistic phase of Cy Twombly’s work in terms of place of inspiration. It was in 1981 that for the first time he had rented a studio in Formia, a town on the Gulf of Gaeta. Only four years later Cy Twombly purchased a house overlooking the harbour of Gaeta stating the importance of this area as inspiring spot for his work. It is known that from 1985, year in which he restored expanded and used as a studio this house, until his death in 2011, important series of art works have been executed in this studio (paintings like Venere sopra Gaeta dated 1988, Cycle of Nine Green paintings, showed at the 43rd Venice Biennale, Summer Madness of 1990, The Quattro Stagioni paintings, and many sculptures like Thermopylae of 1991 , just to mention a few). In the same property Cy Twombly created also a garden of lemon trees conceived as a collection of garden rooms.

In Untitled Twombly’s brush strokes contrast with the scrawled ciphers and scratches of his earlier paintings
The vibrancy of the strokes generate a dynamic rhythm, quality constantly embodied by his art work, that suggest a relentless motion. In this case it represents the infinity of the marine motion. To evoke the essence of the sea the artist restrains his palette to tones of blue and some black while the thickness and the richness of the paint quality trace the tempestous movements of the sea water. A vessel like figure appers on the upper central area of the composition, the sense of movement of the boat is accentuated by the diagonal brush stroke and the profile of a sail heading towards the opposite direction. Untitled seems to represent the wildness as well as the tragic nature of the sea, its unexpectedness and infinity. Once again though Twombly calls attention to the surface of the composition he manages to simoltaneously depict depth by layering and juxtaposing gestural strokes.

Like other works executed in the early Eighties Untitled embodies a style in which the composition is monochromatic and the surface is mostly painted by thick layers of paint that incorporate that sense of motion characteristic of the artist’s oeuvre. In Untitled the power of the sea is vibrant and immense.

“And I am very happy to have the boat motif because, when I grew up, in summer with my parents we were always in Massachusetts, and I was always by the sea. You know, sometimes little boys love cars, but I had a particular passion for boats, and now I live by the sea (…) And the sea: because, if you've noticed, the sea is white three quarters of the time, just white – early morning. Only in the fall does it get blue, because the haze is gone.

The Mediterranean, at least – the Atlantic is brown – is just always white, white, white. And then, even when the sun comes up, it becomes a lighter white… Not because I paint it white; I'd have painted it white even if it wasn't, but I am always happy that I might have. It's something that has other consciousness behind it”.
('Cy Towmbly, 2000', June 2000; published in Interviews with American Artists by David Sylvester, David Sylvester, Chatto and Windus – London 2001)