Cy Twombly – Passion at work

[26/11/2007]

 

Cy Twombly rubbed shoulders with the expressionism of the American abstract artists during the 1950s but remained an artist on the fringe. His works appear like graphic eruptions, combining writing, drawing and numbers. They seem to be scribbled in haste, animated by a creative urgency exhibiting the unconscious… A complusive imperative which alludes to the automatic writing of the surrealist artists.

The beginning of the XXIst century marked Cy TWOMBLY’s rise to real international recognition: in 2001, he won the Lion d’Or at the Venice Biennale. This prize did not have an immediate impact on his prices at auction. Interest emerged three years later at the time of the travelling exhibition ‘CY Twombly, 50 years of Works on Paper’, introducing his work, in turn, to Saint-Petersburg, the Munich Pinakothek and the Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris before ending at the Serpentine Gallery in London. This major cultural event had an immediate impact on his price level: his record in terms of sale proceeds was set in 2004 with more than EUR 13.4 million…..The following year these proceeds again increased by more than EUR 4 million.

The auction record for the artist culminated at USD 7.7 million for an untitled mixed technique from 1968. The work was sold in November 2005 at Sotheby’s NY, achieving the artist’s 28th million-plus sale. The most sought-after canvases are those produced at the end of the 1960s.
In the early 1990s, several canvases from the late 1960s were affordable at around USD 50,000 but, for the past decade, such works no longer change hands for under USD 100,000. The less well dated works have also benefited from the rise in prices and the last canvas to be acquired for less than USD 100,000 was sold in June 2003 at Sotheby’s London. The work, a 1970 oil entitled Roman Notes, sold for GBP 60,000 (USD 99,600).
Currently, the canvases measuring around fifty centimetres change hands for between USD 150,000 and 600,000 on average, whatever the period. For a budget of under USD 50,000, the admirer will need to be happy with a drawing such as the small 1963 Apollo in felt pen (16 x 23 cm), sold for EUR 10,000 in Munich at Ketterer Kunst on 12 June 2007, having not found a buyer in Paris on 28 November 2006 (Piasa). Another example: that of Reflection, a work sold for USD 34,000 (86.4 x 67.3 cm) last 18 May in New York (Phillips, de Pury & Company). This same Reflection had sold for GBP 5,800 four years earlier (around USD 9,600, Christie’s London, 23 June 2003).

Prices for his prints are following the upwards trend. Some collectors are even prepared to spend more than EUR 100,000 for lots of 6 lithographs in the Sketches series or the Roman Notes series edited in 100 examples!

In addition to the British and American market, which accounts for 60% of transactions, many lovers follow the Italian sales where 24% of his works come up for auction….Note that this artist of American origin chose Italy as his adoptive country as of the late 1950s. Twombly is also popular in France, with art critics there finding affinities with European culture. Last summer, the Lambert foundation paid him homage in a notorious exhibition in Avignon: a woman planted a kiss on a canvas by the artist, damaging the work… a passion whose imprint caused something of a stir.