The Italians
Cy Twombly. The Italians. Rome, January 1961. Oil, pencil, and crayon on canvas, 6' 6 5/8" x 8' 6 1/4" (199.5 x 259.6 cm). Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund. © 2013 Cy Twombly Foundation
Cy Twombly. The Italians. Rome, January 1961. Oil, pencil, and crayon on canvas, 6' 6 5/8" x 8' 6 1/4" (199.5 x 259.6 cm). Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund. © 2013 Cy Twombly Foundation
Wild, scribbled, graffiti–like marks energize the expansive white surface of The Italians, revealing the artist's sensuous joy in manipulating his medium. The explosion of signs, ironically, is not without order or clarity: the rubbing of charcoal on the far left side of the canvas reveals the stretcher bar beneath it, a red heart can be seen at the bottom, and "roma" is written just beneath the artist's signature at the top right.